■'W 






'W^'" 



W^' 







'■'* J^ -"--,% ''--^j^ •>".%' 




.^,0^.. 









aX 



,0- 



\. 



V * 






\0^ 



:v 



\. ^'^ 



I'. 


^^. 


r: 


x^ 


^ .0- 




^o 


I 


O' 




^^- .^ 


.0 






o. 



^H^e../J^ 



Celtic JJesearcJes, 



O^ TH£ 



ORIGIN, TRADITIONS .§• LANGUAGE, 



OF TftE 



ANCIENT BRITONS; 



WITH SOME 



INTRODUCTORY SKETCHES, 



ON 



PRIMITIVE SOCIETY. 



BY EDWARD *t)AVIES, 

Curate of O Ives ton, Gloucestershire. 



lon&on: 

PRI]SrTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 
AND SOLD BY J BOOTH, DUKE-STREET, PORTLAND-PLACSL 

1804. 










J. B^xriKLD^ Printer* Wardour-Streel^ 
Solio. 



TO Tirfi 



KING, 



SIRE, 



Though YOUR Majesty's 
permission has enabled me to 
approach your Throne, and pre- 
sent you with such a feeble tri- 
bute, as that of my, obscure^ 



lb 

labours, (in a path, which no 
flowers can adorn, or practical 
use recommend,) I tremble, when 
I contemplate the homeliness of 
the oblation itself. 

Disadvantages, personal to 
me, or incidental to the subject, 
had precluded the faintest hope 
of such an elevated honour. 

An humble, and contracted 
sphere, of occupations, and for- 
tune, has precluded me from 
a liberal access to hooks, or to 
men. 



The rude, though honest, 
^;7V(;725, of whose language I have 
traced the mysterious analogies, 
were placed, by the simple man- 
ners of the age, in which they 
lived, and of the circle, which 
they filled, at an awful distances 
from the attainments of their en- 
lightened progeny ; for whom 
have been reserved the felicities 
of your Majesty's reign, the 
moral influence of your domes- 
tic life, and the genial encou^ 
ragements, conferred upon every 
liberal effort in the arts, by this, 
Augustan, age of Britain. 



.^ 



^ 




z 



The occult, and mystic lore 
of Druidism, though containing 
principles of inestimable value 
in the elements of language, was 
neither intended, nor calculated, 
for that general prevalence, and 

reception, which could alone 
have ascertained, and recorded, 
this branch of its oracles, with 
precision^ 

Simplicity of manners, and 
superstitious credulity, which con- 
stituted the most prominent 
features of character in the vo- 
taries of that religion, obstructed 



w 

the solution ot its riddles, and 
consigned its legendary tales to 
their fate, as oracular mysteries, 
too deep to be fathomed. 

It became, therefore, a task 
of extreme difficulty, at a distant 
period from those hints of science, 
to develop their scheme, and re* 
duce their principles into system* 

These difficulties, were heigh- 
tened, by an imperfect educa- 
tion — laborious duties — number- 
less adversities — habitual infirm- 
ities of constitution,— and, most 



but 

of allj a defect in the organs of 
sight. 

Be the fate of the Olveston 
Curate, what it may, it has one 
advantage at the bar of Critisis?n, 
under the auspices of this Reign ; 
That, benevolent, and merciful 
tribunal, is like your Courts of 
Justice; it hears, with patience, 
and with candour; it acquits with 
pleasure, and it condemns with 
pain. 

The Author's fate, will 
never affect the sentiments of 



TH E Man . These, have been ever 
alive, and awake, to the most 
grateful impressions of your 
Majesty's paternal regard for 
ingenuous enterprize ';— for the 
interest of truth, and virtue ;— 
for the sacred necessities of the 
poor, — and for the liberties of all. 

If sentiments like thesG,could 
be heightened, — personal grati- 
tude, for the condescension,^\vhich 
I have recently experienced, 
and which / dare not state in 
its Jull extent, would animate 
them, with new spirit. 



V 

The exampky however, of 

such countenance, and protec- 
tion, to mty will, I trust, improve, 
by encouraging, the culture of 
many other soils, more propitious 
to the seeds of learning, than 
mine, though visited by similar 
adversities. 

I am. Sire, 

Your Majesty's 

Devoted subject,, 
and Servant, 

Pdw. Davies. 
olfeston, feb. 39, 1804. 



iJceface. 



Of all human attainments, the art, which 
enables man to communicate his opinions, or 
his feelings, in the shape of oral, and written 
language, — is the most precious in its value. 

By the chain of this magical union, those 
are incorporated, whom the distance of time, 
and of scene, would else have separated ; — the 
early, and the recent ages, meet ; — a barter of 
intellectual treasure is negociated, — and the 
civilized nations of the earth are like neighbour- 
ing families ; — in a word, all acquisitions to 
the use, and the ornament of the social 
world, are streams from this fountain. 

b 



ti preface. 

A regularity of structure^ discernible in the 
ancient, and pure languages, demonstrates, 
that such an art, as that of writing, and speak- 
ing those languages, could not be indebted 
for its birth, to chance; — that it must have 
been formed by inferences of reasoning from 
objects of nature; — formed with simplicity, 
and calculated for precision. 

This volume attempts, not only to investi- 
gate those principles, but, in some degree, 
to ascertain the means by which they unfolded 
themselves into language, and supplied hints 
for their own visible shape, — in other words, 
for the invention of speech, as analyzed into 
a system. 

This art originated in the earliest ages of 
man. Its first, and simple essays, are lost in 
their antiquity. 

Upon a topic of such difficulty, and of 
such moment, in the history of man, even 



preface. lit 

local facts, may be of some value to the his- 
torian, who fills a more ample space, in 
the extent of his views. The choice^ there^ 
fore, of the subject, requires no apology, or 
defence. The execution of the task is that, 
which alone deprecates the severities of cri- 
ticism. 

I was directed accidentally to this channel 
of literature, by circumstances, peculiar, and 
personal to me. A design to publish what I 
had written, was the result of no confidence 
in abilities, or attainments ; it was the effect 
of a more humble sentiment: I was per- 
suaded, that chance had thrown in my way, 
and that curiosity, exempt from all pre-con- 
ception, (the bane of truth) had enabled me 
to discover a system elucidated by facts, and 
which the liberal scholar would, at least, rather 
examine with care, though laid before him 
by me, than consign it unexamined, at once, 
to oblivion. 

b2 



Inclination, for which I cannot account, 
having disposed me to explore the few traces 
that are left us of the ancient TVelshy my at- 
tention was impelled, with slow, but accu- 
mulating force, to their singular doctrines 
upon the origin of speech^ and the fundamental 
principles of language, I began to penetrate 
the mystic import of these oracles. But, re- 
collecting, where I found them, I was inclin- 
ed rather to believe it an antiquarians whiniy 
than a discovery of real use, in the pursuit of 
historical science. 

In 1797, I had occasion to make researches 
in the Irish language. Again, the same vision 
presented itself: I compared the notices, which 
I had previously obtained at home, with lights 
thrown upon them, by those collateral branches 
of the Celtic House;— till 1 found myself in the 
habit of arranging a system, calculated for 
the double object of representing, by symbols 
the ideas, and the sounds. 



preface. ti 

I followed this clue, till I had, in some 
degree, unravelled that ancient scheme, by 
analogies, which appeared, upon repeated, 
and severe trials, to be founded in truth. 

Still I conceived the notion to be exclu- 
sively Celtic. In the first periods, therefore, and . 
stages, of the analysis, I applied the several 
principles of speech to Celtic dialects alone. 
The result was gratifying to curiosity; but it 
rested there. 

A perpetual jealousy against theoretical 
delusions, or partial experiments, determined 
me to enlarge the field of inquiry. It appeared 
improbable, that radical principles, of an 
art so general, should have been discovered 
originally by the Celtic race, whose knowledge 
of any letters at all, has been doubted by some 
of the modern critics in historical disquisition ; — 
or that such a people, as they are in general 
described, should have been the selected 
guardians of those principles. 



bi preface. 

I began to reason with myself thus : 

" A nation, comparatively rude^ and sim- 
ple, may have preserved the outlincH of two, or 
three, ancient, and primitive arts, with more 
precision than others, who were mbitious of 
innovations, and refinements. 

" But, if the system be a genuine relic of 
antiquity, it will abide the t^ht o^ compa- 
rison. Traces of it will be found in other 
countries ; — at least, those eleme Jts which are 
intimated by the symbols^ will find corrs-^pond- 
ing affinities in the radic^xl terms of other lan- 
guages, which are known to be ancient. The 
system of Celtic speech is too ingenious to have 
been struck out by the original contrivance, 
or local accidents of the Celtic race." 

I made an experiment upon the languages 
of Judea, — upon those of Greece, — and of 
Rome. 



The result of that process will offer itself to 
the reader : upon me, it impressed conviction. 

My limited, and mutilated collection of 
books, would not enable me to extend the 
range any further, at present^ or to be very 
curious in the choice of examples. But those, 
which I have selected, will afford an ample 
opportunity of deciding upon the measure of 
credit, which is due to my Celtic masters^ and 
upon the authenticity of the collateral sup- 
port, which is given to them^ by other nations. 

I have not strained any facts, to support a 
favourite hypothesis ; my own first impressions 
have resigned themselves to the current* 
Their guide has been the disinterested aim of 
honest, and sober experiment. Their distrust 
of themselves has made them diligent in 
accrediting, as far as they could, all the 
incidental varieties of truth. Many are the^ 
revolutions, which, in their course, they have 
adopted, and sustamed. 



but preface. 

At last, they reached a kind of station, 
which commanded a fair view. They rested 
upon it, and were animated by the hope to 
remove, at a future period, the shadows, which 
impeded the view, and withheld, or inter- 
cepted a part of the scene. 

I am, therefore, to implore, that a dis- 
tinction may be kept in view by the reader, 
between those principles^ which I have brought 
forward, and the mode of illustrating them^ 
which is peculiar to me. The former, were 
no discoveries of mine. I have told my reader 
where he can find them, as well as myself. 
They are nothing like novelties, though for a 
time they have been forgotten, or overlooked. 
If my application of them will point out, from 
new sources of reasoning, their connection 
with historical truths and with principles of 
nature^ the intrinsic value of that result, will 
be the same, whether in tracing all the roots, 
and branches of their pedigree, my inferences 



preface. iv 

have been sound, and legitimate, — or ill reason- 
ed ; my attentions, deep, — or superficial. 

I am not sure, whether I ought, upon the 
whole, to lament the obscurity of my path 
in the world, so far, as it has placed me at 
an humble distance from all intercourse with 
predecessors in the same line of pursuit. 

Not having pointed my researches at the 
original spring of written language, till at 
the recent, and casual impulse of the circum- 
stance above recited, in the JVelsh manu- 
scripts, I had not even learnt the names 
of some very eminent critics, who have been 
occupied in a pursuit of the same, or similar 
topics. The ingenious works of Mr. Astle, Mr. 
Whiter, General Vallancey^ Mr. Maurice^ Mon- 
sieur de Gebelin, Monsieur des Brosses, &c. &c. 
were laid before me, as novelties^ for my enter- 
tainment, after the circulation of my first 
proposals. ^ 



X preface* 

An earlier knowledge of these authors 
would have assisted me in adjusting my ar- 
guments, and propositions : it would have 
spared me the labour of some proofs built 
upon experiment, which employed a tedious 
length of time (though, ultimately, making 
no figure in the work) and would have been 
clear gain to me in perspicuity of arrange- 
ment ; — but it would have endangered my at- 
tentions to the main object. It might have 
seduced me, by the influence of learning, to 
borrow, or invent systems, when it was my 
humble office to develope, authenticate, and 
confirm the use of materials, constructed 
many ages ago. 

It is with infinite satisfaction, however, 
that I observe an occasional coincidence be- 
tween some of my notices, and those of the 
authors to whom I have adverted ; — because 
the force of truth could alone have led us to 
the same identical spot, by routes, uncon- 
nected, as well as intricate. 



preface* jct 



I was treating of arts, which are traced from 
the eariiest ages of man. It was unavoidable, 
to make some reflections upon the character 
of society in those periods of the world. 
Perhaps there is no topic, upon which the 
moderns have shewn less of their accustomed 
liberality, or candour. 

They have taken their sketch of primitive 
man^ as they found him, at the dawn of pro- 
fane history, in the middle ages of the world ; 
that is, when the little States of Greece^ of 
Italy^ and of the adjacent regions, began to 
want elbow-room ; — when ambition had violated 
the good faith of prior establishment, or 
compact ; yet, before the palm of the victor 
had enabled governments to control their 
subjects, and before the law of nations had 
rooted their principles of mutual forbearance 
between the rights of the belligerant parties, at 
the end of their conflict. These, were, con- 



sequently, times of confusion, which de- 
graded the human character into a pestilent, 
and brutal spirit of rapine. But earlier, and 
sacred history of the same noble creature, 
man, proves, to the most incredulous, that 
savage life is the child of accident^ and has no 
filial marks of nature, as her parent. 

I hope the few sketches upon this topic, 
which I have throAvn together, will contain 
materials, which have interest, as well as no- 
velty enough (I mean, in the notice of them) 
to atone for their insertion. - 

The short outline of the Cellce, and of their 
Druids, was neither intended, nor calculated 
for the purpose of adding to their fame, at 
the expence of their neighbours ; — but for the 
single object of marking some traditions re- 
specting their primitive character, which they 
had not, in fact, obliterated from their me- 
mory, or attention. 



^xdm, xiii 

The hypothesis, " that nations originated, 
not from colonies, but emigrating families,'' ap- 
pears to be warranted by the sacred historian. 

Perhaps what I have suggested, may prompt 
others, of more leisure, and of superior ta- 
lents, to divest themselves of national pre- 
judices, and then, to examine our interesting 
corner of ancient Europe with more accu- 
racy. 

The field is not so barren, or its fruit so 
harsh to the taste, as they have been too 
hastily described. 



Having thus engaged, and with no impro- 
vident haste, in what struck me, as a fair pur- 
suit of acquisition to literature, — unbiassed by 
antecedent speculations, — but unassisted by 
the labours of ingenious men, who had gone 
before me in a discussion of similar topics, — 



I circulated a short Prospectus in September, 
1801. It- was in the form of proposals^ to lay 
before the Public (if I could reach that num- 
ber by subscription) Jive hundred copies of a 
single volume. 

No sooner were these proposals known, 
when I received unequivocal hints of that 
munificent, and perhaps unexampled, patron- 
age, which appears in the list annexed. — 
Amongst other disadvantages, which are in the 
company of these honours, it is, perhaps, 
the heaviest in its oppression of my feelings, 
that I cannot pay the sincere tribute of 
my thanks, in the detail which is due to 
them ; and that I must, with some few ex- 
ceptions, request the indulgence of delicate 
liberality, if I abstain from particulars, which, 
if enumerated, would not only seem an im- 
pertinence of tributary homage, but would, 
perhaps, be accused of pride, under the mask 
of gratitude. 



Some, however, there are, who must for- 
give me, if I discriminate their signal fa- 
vours. 

Mn Hardinge first exhorted me to publish a 
Literary Essay^ — animated my labours, — and 
cherished them. He exerted his influence, 
early, and late, in my support, with such ar- 
dour, and with such effect, that I owe to him the 
most ample share of that countenance which 
graces the list of my Patrons. The impro- 
vidence (if such it must be deemed) of raising 
the Okeston Curate, from the dust of pro- 
vincial obscurity, into public notice, lies at 
his door. He has honoured me with his ad- 
vice, — he has furnished me with an ample 
variety of curious books, — and has enlightened 
me with most valuable hints, engrafted upon 
discoveries of his own. 

To the Bishop of Bath and Wells^ my obli- 
gations are most interesting: His countenance 
to the work, and me, had value superior to any 



estimate* But, most of all, I thank him, and 
with an honest, though simple heart, for the 
testimony which he bore to my personal^ and 
professional character. 

Other Prelates have not only distinguished 
me with patronage, communicated by their 
names, but have promoted my interest, and 
have sustained my hopes, by acts of benefi- 
cence, and by expressions of benevolence, 
which have entered into the heart, and have 
made impressions there, which never can be 
lost, or grow faint, as long as memory shall 
be firm upon her seat. 

The Bishop of St. Asaph, upon his promotion 
to that See, left me as a kind of legacy to 
the Chapter at Westminster, who honoured 
me, at his request, with a distinguished mark 
of their encouragement. 



I must not here forget this Prelate's imme- 
diate predecessor, who conferred upon me 



tlie value of a subscription for ten sets, de- 
siring a single book in exchange for it. When 
the reader shall do me the honour to recollect 
who that Bishop was, perhaps the most learn- 
ed man of his age, he will forgive me the 
vanity of recording these attentions from^i;w. 



The Bhhop of Chichester, though I was a 
perfect stranger to him, till he saw my letters 
to Mr. Hardinge^ upon the subject of this 
Work, has not only encouraged me, but has 
expressed his opinion of me, in terms of such 
engaging politeness, and zeal for my interest, 
that he has enhanced the value of his good 
offices to me, b}^ the manner of representing 
his motive to them. 

The Bishop of Dromore, having seen one 
of those letters, adopted me, at once, into 
his confidence and regard, as if I had been 
long known to him, and almost as if I had 
borne a part with him in those masterly dis- 
cussions, which have acquired so eminent a 
rank in the literary world, both for them, and 

c 



)rtjtii preface. 

for him. I have the happiness, in general, 
to coincide with his opinions ; and I am ever 
proud of them, when they enable me to in- 
corporate them into my system. Few, in my 
humble views of men, were ever blessed with 
a more liberal mind in the pursuit of historical 
discoveries, or with a more discriminating 
power to appreciate their value. 

I must here add, the deep and permanent 
obligation, which I owe to the Bench of Pre- 
lates^ collectively. Every one of whom, with- 
out a dissenting voice, in this, and many in 
the sister island, have countenanced my la- 
bours, either upon a general view of their 
object, or propitiated by the zeal of partial 
friends. 

When my (obscure) path, in the same pro- 
fession, which has elevated them^ is contem- 
plated,this indulgence to me, is a mark of good- 
ness, which no words of mine can appreciate. 

That a general spirit of munificence, in a 



degree unexampled by other communities of 
public men, characterizes the East-India Com^ 
pany^ cannot appear new wherever the name, 
of Britain is known. The condescension of 
it in my favour, is indeed a powerful claim 
upon my personal feelings, (and those feelings 
will never abjure it) but it cannot heighten 
the habitual principles of attachment, which 
calls upon the votaries of science ta revere^ 
and love the men, whose public spirit has 
given a new, and brilliant hemisphere to the 
literary world. 

General Vallancey^ whose ingenuity, and 
learning, have been of great use to me, though 
I do, by no means, adopt all his opinions — 
with a liberality of spirit, inseparable from 
those who are scholars, and gentlemen, has 
patronized me, without calculating whether 
I was friend, or adversary, to hi^ conjectures^ 
or to his inferences. 

Mr. Astle^ to whom I was under Uterarrf 
obligations (before I was honoured with hk 

c2 



perso7ial notice) for the advantage of reading 
liis able treatise on the Origin of Letters^ was 
kind enough to exert himself in my favour, at 
an early period, and has warranted some of 
my opinions, 

Mr. Maurice y the justly-admired author of 
Indian Antiquities, approved my object, and 
conferred upon me, one of the noblest gifts, 
a copy of that inestimable work, 

Mr. Bryant^ whose personal character is 
not inferior even to that of his literary fame- 
though I had an early intimation, that he 
held, my Celtic masters cheap, bestowed upon 
me his name, as one of my patrons ; a name, 
that will command the love, and veneration 
of the world, as long as the pure faith, which 
he has illustrated, shall continue to improve 
the head, and the heart of its professors, 

I deplore it as a misfortune, when draw- 
ing from the same well, I differ with him^ in 



the analysis of those waters ; but I never shall 
cease to admke his talents, to venerate his 
learning,---or to esteem and love the unde- 
viating integrity of his principles, and of 
his life* 

The Society for Literary Fuiids, can receive 
no additional credit from one of the numerous 
individuals whom they have cherished and 
isustained in adversities, like those which have 
depressed me ; but the delicacy, as well as 
the munificence of their conduct by me^ de- 
mands of me, as a debt of honour, which I 
cannot withhold, that I should mark to the 
World so beneficent a system of liberality as 
theirs. I have received, as an encourage- 
ment of this work, and of the writer^ two 
successive donations from them, in actual 
payments, conferred upon me by the unani- 
mous vote of their committees, and recom- 
mended by the most obliging curtesy of man- 
ners, in their Secretary's letters to me.— 
Wherever that society is knoAvn, and wher^^ 
it55 good offices, have beeij felt, in blessings 



upon those, wliom fortune has wounded, the 
name of their Secretary^ Mr. Yates, and the 
philanthropy of his mind, are familiar subjects 
(^f grateful attachment. 

The early and liberal patronage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Codrington, as well as the numerous 
acquisitions my List owes to them, are 
but links in a connected series of benefits, 
conferred upon me by them. After this ge* 
neral, and very inadequate acknowledgment, 
of them all, their details, however precious 
to me, will remain, where gratitude, not un- 
worthy, I hope, even of their friendship, has 
implanted them- 

If good offices are to be measured by their 
critical, and seasonable help, as well as by 
their weight in themselves, what must be my 
obligations to M7\ Peach, of Tockington ? 

He knows to what I allude; and will give 
me ^some credit for sentiments, not injurious 



preface* 



niii 



to exertions, the noblest that friendship ever 
suggested e 

Mr* Theophilus Jones^ of Brecoti^ my ge- 
nerous friend, and the best hearted of men, 
had, for a course of years, made it extremely 
difficult for me to sjay, for which of his af* 
fectionate boons to me I thanked him the 
^nost, and loved him the best. He has re- 
moved the difficulty ; for to him it is that I 
owe Mr, Hardinges friendship. 

To rescue, in a word, that inestimable friend, 
be the fate of this AVork adverse, or propitious, 
I shall contemplate with pride of independent 
joy, the intercourse with him^ which my ex- 
periment, invited, and cherished, by his ge- 
nerous heart, has produced. 



I am now to represent (and what language can 
ever do my feelings justice ?) the obligations 
impressed upon me by Personages, who, in 
this poijat, as in evejy otlier, disclaim all tri- 



xxi^ preface, 

bute of gratitude for sentiments, which ha- 
bitually induce them to elevate their high 
station, by descending from it into all the 
charities of domestic life ; and by adorning it 
with a taste, as well as national regard, for 
the culture of letters. Commanded by them, 
to abstain from panegyric, I leave to their 
generous natures, the interpretation of my 
feelings; — But I request that others, to whom I 
am indebted for the access of my name, and 
work, to such protectors, — will not be averse to 
the justice, which I owe to them. 

Here again, as at every turn, Mr. Hardinge 
presents himself. At his instance, the power- 
-ful aid of minds, no less illustrious by their 
Jives, than by their elevated rank, the Earl 
und Countess of Aylesbury, was exerted in my 
favour, and was propitious to me* They and 
Mr. Matthias, whose intellect is no less culti- 
vated and polished, than his mind is ho- 
nourable, and virtuous, must permit the hum- 
blest of taQ> many, whom their good offices 
liave bles&^.d bnt not the most ungrateful, to 



assure them, (and I cannot thank them better) 
that I had rather lose their good will to me, 
than forfeit the generous character , of it by 
an illiberal action, or sentiment; — that I have 
nothing in view but the improvement of know- 
ledge ; which is nothing, and, perhaps, worse 
than a feather, in the moral system of the 
world, if it is not sworn, and faithful to the 
interest, and the honour of truth 



A 

LIST OF SUBSCmiBEMS 

TO THE 

FOLLOWING ESSAYS. 

HER MAJESTY. 

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales 10 Sets 

His Roy al Highness the Duke of Clarence 2 Sets 

His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent 2 Sets 

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland 2 Sets 

Her Royal Highness the Dutchess of Gloucester 9, Sets 

His Highness Prince WilliamFrederick of Gloucester 2 Sets 
Her Highness Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester 2 Setb 

His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury 2 Sets 

His Grace the Archbishop of York i2 Sets 

The Lord Chancellor 2 Sets 

Lord Ellenborough, Chief Justice of the King's Bench 2 Sets 
(The late) Lord Kenyon, (late) Chief Justice of the 

King's Bench 2 Sets 

Lord Alvanley^ Chief Justice of the Common Plejis 2 Sets 

The Archbishop of Dublin 2 Sets 

The Archbishop of Cashell 2 S«t$ 

The Lord Chancellor of Ireland ' 2 Sets 



(The late) Lord Viscount Kilwarden, (late) Chief 

Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland 2 Sets 

Lord Morbury, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 

in Ireland 2 Sets 

Lord Viscount Avoniiiore, Chief Baron of the 

Exchequer in Ireland 2 Setd 

The Duke of Somerset 2 Sets 

The Duke of Richmond 2 Sets 

The Duke of Grafton 4 Sets 

(The late) Duke of Beaufort 2 Sets 

The Dutchess Dowager of Beaufort 2 Sets 

The Duke of Leeds 2 Sets 

The Duke and Dutchess of Devonshire 4 Sets 

The Duke of Marlborough 2 Sets 

The Duke of Rutland 

The Dutchess Dowager of Manchester 

The Dutchess Dowager of Dorset 2 Sets 

The Marquis of Lansdown 2 Sets 

Tlie Marquis Cornwallis 2 Sets 

I'he Marquis of Hertford 4 Set* 

The Marquis of Bute 2 Sets 

The Marshioness Dowager of Downshire 4 Sets 

The Mai-quis and Marshioness of Thomond 2 Sets 

The Earl of Pembroke 2 Sets- 

The Earl of Westmorland 

The Earl of Sandwich ^ Sets 

TheEarlofCarhsle 2 Sets 

^Earl Berkeley 2 Sets 

'The Earl of Oxford 2 Sets 

The Countess Dowager of Oxford 2 Set3 

The Earl of Bristol 



miommxQ, 


xnv 


The Earl of Dartmouth^ &c. &c. &c. 


2 Sets 


The Earl ot Effingham 




The Earl of Essex 


2 Sets 


The Countess Dowager Waldegrave 




TliC Earl of Egremont 


2 Sets 


Earl Spencer 


£Sets 


The Countess Spencer 




The Countess Dowager Spencer 




The Earl and Countess of Aylesbury 


2 Sets 


The Earl of Clarendon . 


' 2 Sets 


Earl Camden 


2 Sets 


The Earl of St. Vincent, &c. &c. Sec 


2 Sets 


The Earl of Malmesbury 


2 Sets 


TheEarlofPtomney 


, 2 Sets 


The Countess Dowager of Clanbrasii 


2 Sets 


The Earl of Moira 


2 Sets 


The Earl of Mountnorris 


2 Sets 


The Earl of Londonderry 


2 Sets 


The Earl and Countess of Bandon 


4 Setsu 



Lord Viscount Hereford 2 Sets 



Lord Viscount Kilwarden 






2 Sets 


The Dowager Lady Dacre^ 


of Beiliouse, in Essex 


2 Sets 


The Dowager Lady Dacre, of Lee, 


in Kent 


2 Sets 


Lord Hobart, &c. &c. &c. 








Lord Pelham, &c. &c. &c. 






2 Sets 


Lord Vernon 






2 Sets 


Lord Hawke 






2 Sets 


Lord Ducie 






2 Sets 


Lord Brownlow 






2 Sets 


Lord Foley 






2 Sets 


Lord Thurlow 






2 Sets 


Lord and Lady Dynevor 






4 Sets 



Lord Sherborne q Sets 

Lord Amherst ^ Sets 
Lord Aukland^ &c. &c. &c. 

Lady Clive ^ ^ Sets 

The Dowager Lady Calthorpe 2 Sets 

Lord de Bimstanville 10 Sets 

Lord Glastonbury ^ Sets 

Lord Bolton 2 Sets 

Lord and Lady Sheffield 2 Sets 

Lord and Lady Milford 5 Sets 
The Dowager Lady Terapletown 
Lord Maedonald 



Lord Mancaster 


^ Sets 


Lord Teignmouth 


2 Sets 


Lord Whitworth 


3 Sets 


Lord deBlaquiere 




The Bishop of London 


2 Set* 


T^he Bishop of Durham 


2 Sets 


The Bishop of Winchester 


SSet» 


The Bishop of Bath and Wells 


5 Sets 


(The late) Bishop of Bath and Wells 


2 Sets' 


The Bishop of Ely ^ 


SSets 


The Bishop of Worcester 


S Sets 


The Bishop of Hereford 


2 Sets 


The late Bishop of Hereford 


2 Sets 


the Bishop of Litchfield 


2 Sets 


The Bishop of St. Asaph 


2 Sets 


The late Bishop of St. Asaph 


10 Sets 


Tlie Bishop of LandafF 


2 Sets 


The Bishop of Lincoln 


2 Sets 


The Bishop of Salisbury 


2 Sets 


The Bishop of Bangor 




The Bishop of Rochester 


2Seti 



ttl>s!m5er«> )c^ 

The Bishop of Gloucester ^ Sets 

The Bishop of Carlisle 

The Bishop of Norwich 

The Bishop of Peterborough 2 Sets 

The late Bishop of Exeter 

The Bishop of Bristol 2 Sets 

The Bishop of Chichester 10 Sets 

The Bishop of Oxford Q SeU 

The Bishop of Chester 

The late Bishop of St. David's 

The Bishop of Meath ^ Sets 

The Bishop of Limerick 2 Sets 

The Bishop of Dromore 5 Sets 

The Bishop of Elphin 2 Sets 

The Bishop of Down 2 Sets 

The Bishop of Waterford 2 Sets 

The Bishop of Cloyne 2 Sets 

The Bishop of Clogher 2 Sets 

Prince Bariatinsky, Great Portland-sti-eet 2 Sets 

Lady Frances Somerset 2 Sets 

Lord George Lennox 2 Sets 

The Earl of Euston 2 Sets 

Lord George H. Cavendish 2 Sets 

Lord Pcobert Spencer 2 Sets 

The Earl and Countess Temple 4 Sets 

Lord Henry Seymour , 2 Sets 

Lord Robert Seymour 2 Sets 

Lady Caroline Herbert 2 Sets 
The Dowager Viscountess Fielding 
Lady Maria Waldegrave 

Lord Viscount Royston S Sets 



Lord Viscount Althorpe 

Lady Eleanor Butler, at the Cottage near Llangollen, 

in Denbighshire 2 Sets 
Lord Kirkwall 

Lady Eliz^heth Pratt £ Sets 

Lady Sarah Price, Saintfield, in the County of Down 2 Set* 

Lord Viscount Valentia 2 Sets 

Lord Viscount Castlereagh, &c. Sec. &c. 2 Sets 

Lord Viscount Bernard 2 Sets 
Lady Caroline Wood 

Tlie Ptight Hon. Sir \Vm. Grant, Master of the Rolls 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. Henry Addington, &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. Sir William Wynne, &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. Sir William Scott,&c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. Charles Yorke, &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. WiUiam Windham 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. Charles Greville 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. John Charles Villiers . 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. John Foster 2 Sets 
The Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, &c. Sec. &c. 

The Right Hon. Sir C. Morgan, &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. John H. Addington, &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

The late Right Hon Thomas ConoUy 2 Sets 

The Right Hon. Maurice Fitzgerald, Knightof Kerry 2 Sets 

The Hon. and Rev. William Capel 2 Sets 

The Hon. George Villiers 2 Sets 
The Hon. John Ward 

The Hon. and Rev. Dr. Marsham 2 Sets 

The Hon. Henry Devereaux 2 Sets 
The Hon. Edward Lascelles 
The Hon. and Rev. Gerald Wellesley 

The Hon. Mr. and Lady Frances Morton 4 Sets 

The Hon. Captain Morton C Sets 

The Hon. Charles James Fox 2 Sets 



The Hon. W. H. Irby 2 Sets 

The Hon. John Peachey and Mrs. Peachey 2 Sets 

The Hon. Thomas Fitzwilliam 2 Sets 

The Hon. Walter Yelverton 2 Sets 

The Hon. Sir Rob. Graham^ Baron of the Exchequer 2 Sets 

The Hon. Spencer Percival,8cc.&c. &c. 10 Sets 

The Hon. Thomas M. Sutton^ Esq. &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

George Hardinge^ Esq. &c. &c. &c. 10 Sets 

Richard Richards^ Esq. &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 
i)r. Browne, Sec. &c. &c. Ireland , 



The Dean and Chapter of Westminster 

The Dean of Canterbmy 

The Dean and Chapter of Bristol 

The Dean and Chapter of Chichester 

The Dean of Ely 

Tlie Dean and Chapter of Worcester 

The Dean and Chapter of Exeter 

The Dean and Chapter of Gloucester 

The Dean and Chapter of Hereford 

Tlie Dean of Lincoln 

The Dean of Norwich 

The Dean of Christ Church, Oxford 

The Dean of Peterborough -. 

The Dean of Salisbury 

The Dean and Chapter of Rochester 

The Dean and Chapter of Wells 

The Dean of Winchester 

The Dean of St. Asaph 

The Dean and Chapter of York 

The Dean of Carlisle 



10 Set9 


2 Sets 


8 Sets 


5 Sets 


2 Sets 


^Sets 


4 Sets 


3 Sets 


2 Sets 


2 Sets 


2 Sets 


2 Sets 


2 Sets 


4 Sets 


4 Sets 


2 Sets 


4 Sets 


2 Sets 



The Dean of t)en'y 5 Sets 

The Dean of Raphoe • 2 Setf 
The Dean of Ardfert 

The Dean of Connor 5 Sets 

The Dean of Waterford £ Sets 
The Dean of Kilaloe 



THE DIRECTORS OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY 40 SctS 

The Master of Baliol College, Oxford 2 Sets 

The Warden of Merton College, Oxford 2 Sets 

The Rector of Exeter College 2 Sets 

The Provost of Oriel College 2 Sets 

The Provost of Queen's College, Oxf6rd 2 Sets 

The Warden of New College 2 Sets^ 

The Warden of All Souls College, 2 Sets 

The President of Magdalen College, Oxford 2 Sets 

The President of Corpus Christi College, 2 Sets 
The President of Trinity College> Oxford 

The President of St. John's College, Oxford 2 Sets 

The Warden of Wadham College, 2 Sets 
The Master of Pembroke College, Oxford 

The Provost of Worcester College 2 Sets 
The Principal of Alban Hall 



The Regius Professor of Hebrew, in Oxford 2 Set* 
The Regius Professor of Modern History, in Oxford 2 Sets 
The Professor of Anglo-Saxon, in Oxford 
The Professor of Botany, in Oxford 

The Master of Peter-HousQ, in Cambridge 2 Sets 

The Provost of King's College, Cambridge 2 Sets 

The Master of St. John's College, in Cambridge 2 Sets 

The Master of Trinity College, Cambridge 2 S^its 



The Master of Emmanuel College 2 Sets 

The Regius Professor of Civil Law^ in Cambridge 2 Sets 

The Public Orator^ in Cambridge 

The Norrisian Professor of Divinity, in Cambridge 

The Casuistical Professor, Cambridge 

University College Library, in Oxford 
Corpus Christi College Library 
Oriel College Library 

The Public Library of Cambridge 
The Library of Jesus College, in Cambridge 
The Library of Emmanuel College 
King's College Library, Cambridge 
Trinity College Library, in Cambridge 

The Provost of Eton College 2 Seta 

Eton College Q Sets 

The Fellows of Eton College 8 Sets 

The Masters of Eton School 2 Sets 

The late Upper Master of Westminster School £ Sets 

The Provost of Trinity College, Dublin 
The Master of the Temple 
The Society of the Middle Temple 
The Master of the Charter House 

The Master of the Charter House School S Sets 

The Society for Literary Funds gO Sets 

Dublin Library Society 
Cornwall County Library 
Worcester Library 
Bristol Library 
Frenchay Library, in Bristol 
Sunderland Subscription Library 
Book Society of Battle, in Sussex 

d2 



John Rutherforth Abdj^ Esq. Albyns^ nearEpping^ in Essex 

Mrs.Abington 

Mr. Frederick Accum, Compton-street, Soho 

Samuel Acton^ Esq. Pembridge^ in the County of Hereford 

Mrs. Adair 

Dr. xldam^ Edinburgh 

James Adams^ Esq. M. P. &€. &c. 8cc. 2 Set^ 

Charles Adams^ Esq. M. P. 2 Set« 

Mrs. Adams_, Olveston 

John Adolphus, Esq. F. S. A. Warren Street 

Harland Ainsworth, Esq. Swansea 

Rev. Thomas Alban^ Ludlow 

Rev. Charles Alcock^ Prebendary of Chichester 

William Alexander^ Esq. King's Counsel 

Grant Allen, Esq. Winchester-Street 

John Allen, Esq. Town Clerk, Dublin 

John Allen, Esq. South -Street, Finsbury-Square . . 

Henry Allen, Esq. Barrister at Law, of the Lodge, in 

the County of Brecon 2 S«ts 

Rev. James Allen, Rector of Shobdon, in the County 

of Hereford 
Mrs. Alth am, Wey mouth-Street 

Miss Andrews, of the Circulating Library, in Worcester 
Mrs. Apreece, Washingley Hall, Huntingdonshire 
Hev. William Armstrong, F. A. S. 
George Arnold, Esq. (late) of Halstead, near Seven 

oaks, in Kent 
Dr. Ash, M . D. Argyll-Street, 2 Sets; 

Edward Ash, Esq. King's-Square, Bristol 3 Ssta 

Nathaniel Atcheson, Esq. F. A. S. Ely-Place 
John Atkinson, Esq. of Manchester 
Thomas Atkinson, Esq. of ditto 

Joseph Babington, M, D. Ludlow 



Antliony Bacon, Esq. Newtown, near Newbury, in 

Berks 2 Sets 

Matthew Baillie, M. D. 2 Sets 

Miss Joanna Baiilie, Hampstead Q. Sets 

Edward Baker, Esq. Salisbury 
George Baker, Esq. Birmingham 

Rev. Mr. Baker 7 Sets 

Mr. R. Baker, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
John Baldwin, Esq. Manchester 

Richard Baldwin, Esq, Sec. St. Bartholomew's Hospital 
Benjamin Ball, Esq. Assistant Barrister for the 

County of Donegal 2 Set* 

Mr. Gowen Ball, Bristol 
Mr. Joseph Ball, London 
Mr. Richard Ball, Bridgewater 
Rev. Mr. Banister 

J. C. Banks, Esq. at the Charter-house 
Dr. Bardsley, M. D. Manchester 9. Sets 

Mr. John Barfield, Printer to His Royal Highness 

the Prince of Wales 2 Sets 

Rev. Charles Barker, Canon Residentiary of Wells 2 Sets 
Rev. Mr. Barker, Chancellor of Christ College,Brecon 
«R. P. Barlow, Esq. General Post Office 
Edward Barnard, Esq. Harefield-Grove, Middlesex 
Rev. Mr. Barnes, Christ Church, Oxford 2 Sets 

Dr. Barnett, M. D. Ludlow 
Denham Barons, Esq. Clapham 
Rev. Charles Brent Barry 

Thomas Barrow, jun. Esq. Barrister at Law, Inner Temple 
The late Rev. Mr. Barton, late Chaplain to the House 

of Commons, &c. 
John Barton, Esq. Manchestex* a Sets 

Henry Barton, Esq. ditto 2 Sets 

Henry Barton, jun. Esq. ditto 2 Sets 



John Barton^ Esq. 

Mrs. James Barton,, Dean's Water^ near Win slow^ 

in Cheshire 2 Seta 

John Bassetj Esq. of Bolston;, in Glamorganshire 
Rev. Mr. Basset^ Vicar of Swansea 2 Sets 

Rev. John Bastock^ M. A. Liverpool 

Rev. Dr. Bathurst^ Prebendary of Durham 2 Sets 

William Battersby, Esq. Bei4eley Square^ Bristol 
George Fleming Baxter^ Esq. 
Mr. Beadford^ Frenchay_, Bristol 

Rev. Edwardes Beadon, JNorth Stoneham^ Essex 2 Sets 

Rev. Frederick Beadon, North Stoneham^ Essex 
Rev. John Watson Beadon, Odiam^ Hants 
John Bedford^ Esq. Pershore, Worcester 
Rev. Thomas Bedford^ Rector of St. Helen's, Worcester 
Rev. ]\Ir. Beecher, King's College^ Cambridge 
Peter Begbie, Esq. New Bond-Street 
Adam Bell, Esq. Victualling Office, Deptford 
George Beltz, Esq. Herald's College 
John Bennett, Esq. Pythouse 
Rev. Mr. Berens, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 
Major-General and Mrs. Bernard ^ Sets 

Mr. Berrington, Attorney at Law, Swansea 
Mr. Berry, sen. Trinity College, Oxford 
Mr. Berry, jun. ditto 

Thomas Best, Esq. Boxley, near Maidstone 2 Sets 

Mr. James Best, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
William Bethell, Esq. and Mrs. Bethell, Langton- 

Hall, Yorkshire 2 Sets 

R.Bevan, Esq. Barrister at Law, Boswell-Court, Lincoln's-Inn 
Rev. Mr. Bevan, Rector of Whitton 2 Sets^ 

Richard Bever, Esq. 5 Sets 

Ralph Bigland, Esq. Richmond, Herald 
Samuel Birch, Esq. Portland-Square, Bristol 



» 



Rev. Mr. Birch, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 

Thomas Bird, Esq. Worcester 

Mr. Bird, Bookseller, Cardiff 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Bishop, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 

Rev. S. Blackali, Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge 

Mr. J. P. Blackmore, West Bromwich 

William Blakeney, Esq. 

Rev. Robert Blakeney 

Mr. John Blew, Sheriff of the City of Worcester 

Rev. Mr. Bliss, Frampton Cotterell £ Seti 

Mrs. Bliss 

Mrs. C. Bliss 

William Blizzard, F. A. S. 2 Sets 

Bendon Bload, Esq. of the County of Clare, in Ireland 2 Sets 

Rev. William Bhmdell, A. M. Dublin 

Rev. Thomas Blyth, Solyhull, Warwickshire 

Rev. Mr. Boardman, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 

Thomas Boddington, Esq. a Bank Director 2 Sets 

John Bodenham, Esq. of the Grove, Radnorshire 

Hiigh Bold, Esq. Barrister at Law^ Brecon 

Thomas Bold, Esq. of ditto 

Cornelius Bolton, Esq. Waterford g Sets 

Mr. Bond, Briglithelmstone 

Henry Bonham, Esq. 

Thomas Bonville, Esq. St. JamesVSquare, Bristol 2 ets 

Rev. Mr. Booker, Dudley, Warwickshire 

Mr. Booth, Bookseller, Corner of Duke and 

Dutchess-Street, Portland-Place 6 Sets 

Mr. George Booth, Great Portland-Street 
William Boscawen, Esq. 2 Sets 

William Spencer Boscawen, Esq. 2 Sets 

Rev. Jonathan Boucher, A. M. F. S. A. Vicar of Epsom 
Rev. Richard Bourne, A. M. Dublin 
Sir Charles W, R. Boughton, Barl. 2 Set* 



John Bowdler, Esq, and Mrs. Bowdler 2 Sets 

Thomas Bowdler, Esq. of St. Boniface, in the Isle of Wight 

Mrs. Bowdler, of Bath 

William Bowdon, Esq. Union Court, Broad-Street 

William Bowdon, Esq. Marty-Melland, Devonshire 

Kev. W. L. Bowles, Donhead 

Thomas B. Brampston, Esq. M. P. Albemarle-Street 

Rev. John Brampston, Stone-Forest Hall, Essex 

Robert Bree, M. D. Birmingham 

Charles T. Brereton, Esq. Bristol 

Thomas Brice, Esq. 

Samuel Brice, Esq, Erenchay, Bristol 

Mr. Brydges, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

George Bright, Esq. 

Richard Bright, Esq. 

• Brisco, Esq. Trinity College, Cambridge 

Rev. William Bristow, Ireland 
John Britten, Esq. Wilderness-Row 
Theodore Henry Broadhead, Esq. Portland-Place 
Theodore Henry Broadhead, jun. Esq. Orchard-Street 2 Sets 
Rev. Anthony Bromley, Rector of St. Mildred, Poultry- 
Henry Brockard, Esq. Camden-Street, Pancras 
Rev. Mr. Brooke, Exeter College, Oxford 
Rev. Thomas Brooke, Sodbury 
Mr. Richard Brooke 
Rev. Dr. Brooker, Dudley, Warwickshire 
Mr. Brotherton, Little Britain, Aldersgate-Street 
J. H. Browne, Esq. M. P. 
John Browne, Esq. Presteigne 

Thomas Browne, Esq. New Bridge-Street, Blackfriars 2 SetS; 
Timothy Browne, Esq. Camberwell 
Francis Browne, Esq. General Post-Office 
Mr. Browne, Attorney at Law, Cardiif 
Thomas Browne, Esq. Barpster at Law, Inner Temple 



Rev. Mr. Browne, Corpus Christi, College, Oxford 

Crasvfurd Bruce, Esq. M. P. Fitzroy-Square 

Rev. Dr. Bruce, Ireland 

Jacob Bryant, Esq. &c. &c. 8cc. £ Sets 

Mrs. Bi'vant, Bath wick ' 

Admu-al Buckner, Chichester 2 Sets 

Miss Maria Budgen, Twickenham 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Bullock, Oriel College, Oxford 

Mr, Burch, Miniature Painter^ Charlotte-Street, 

Rathbone-Place 
Sir James B. Burgess, Bart. 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Burgess, Rector of Winfirth-Newburgh, Dorsetshire 
Miss Burton, Christ Church, Oxford 

James C. Butson^ Esq. Waterford 2 Sets 

Rev. J. M. Butt, Student of Christ Church 
Rev. Thomas Butt^ -Arley, Worcestershire 

Thomas Cabbell, Esq. Exeter College, Oxford 
Benjamin B. Cabbell, Esq. ditto 

Mrs. Cade, Sidcop, near Foot's Cray 2 Sets 

Messrs. Cadell and Davies, Booksellers, Strand 6 Sets 

Tho. Caldecot, Esq. Barrister at Law, Dartford, Kent 2 Sets 
Henry Callendar, Esq. 
Mr. Calley, Trinity College 
Colonel Campbell, New Cavendish-Street 
Dr. Cameron, M. D. Worcester 

Rev. Dr. Camplin, Vicar of All Saints, Bristol 2 Sets- 

Colonel Capper, Cardiff 2 Sets 

John Carleton, Esq. Mountjoy-Square, Dublin 
John Carrington, Esq. Mile-End 
John Carstares, Esq. Stratford-Green, Essex 
David Cassidy, Esq. Upper Mary-le-bone-Street 
Miss Cartwright 
Rev. Dr. Cagberd, Vicar of Penmark, &c. Glamorganshire 



Xlii 



ufistnfjetfi* 



Stephen Cave^ Esq. Brunswick-Square^ Bristol 

John Cave^ Esq. 

George Chahners, Esq. 6 Sets 

The late Sir Robert Chambers, Chief Justice of India, 

Queen Ann-Street East 
Lady Chambers^ of ditto 
Br. Chambers, M. D. Worcester 
William Chapman, Esq. Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
Hev. R. Charleton, Vicar of Olveston 4 Sets 

Mrs. Charleton £ Sets 

Mrs. Charleton, College Green, Bristol 
R. Chearnley, Esq. Swansea 
Edmund Cheese, Esq. Kington, Herefordshire 
Mr. John Cheetham, Manchester 
Rev. Joseph Cheston, A. M. Gloucester 
George Children, Esq. Tunbridge, Kent 2 Sets, 

Mrs. P. Cholmeley, Weymouth-Street 
Rev. Mr. Cholmeley, Magdalen College, Oxford 
James Christie, jun. Esq. Pall-Mall 
Robert Christie, Esq. Old-Jewry 
John Chughe, Esq. Gracechurch-Street 
Mr. John Church, Brecon 
Mr. Samuel Church, ditto 
Mr. Churchey, Attorney at Law, and his two Sons, 

Brecon, 3 Sets- 

Colonel Clark, 46th Regiment of Foot 
Mr. John Clark, Land Survej^or 
John Clark, M. D. Burlington-Street 
Anthony Clarke, Esq. Caroline-Place, Guildford-Street 
Mrs. Clarke, of the Hill, near Ross, Herefordshire 
Rev. Mr. Clayton, Fellow of Brazen Nosd College, Oxford 
John Clements, Esq. Upper Grosvenor-Street Q Scte 

Rev. Allen Cliffe, Mathom, near Worcester 
Rev. Mr. Coates, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 



W. H. Coates, Esq. Surgeon, 5th D. G. Howland-Street 

Rev. Mr. Cockayne, Stapleton 

Sir Charles Codrington, Bart. 

C. Codrington, Esq. M. P. Dodington, 5 SeU 

Hon. Mrs. Codrmgton 5 Sets 

Mrs. Codrington, Albemarle- Street 

Captain Codrington, Winchfield, Hants 

Rev. Francis Coke, Lower-Moor, Herefordshire 

Pennel Cole, Esq. Worcester 

Mrs. Cole, Wickham, Suffolk 

Miss Cole 

Charles Collins, Esq. Swansea 

Mr. CoUinson, Queen's College, Oxford 

Thomas Collins, Esq. Berners-Street 

Lieutenant Colly, Royal Engineers, Tower 

Sir John Colpoys, &c. 8cc. &c. 

Benjamin Comberbatch, Esq. Worcester 

Rev. James Commeline, Gloucester 

Rev. Richard Constable, Prebendary of Chichester 

John Conyers, Esq. Mount-Street, Grosvenor-Squar* 

Rev. Edward Conyers, Epping, Essex 

Edward Cooke, Esq. Somerset-Street, Portman-Square 

Rev. Thomas Cooke, Rector of Wickwar 

John Cooke, Esq. Duke-Street, Portland-Place 

Rev. Richard Cooke 

Mr. Cooke, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

Hector Cooksey, Esq. Presteigne 

Rev. Dr. Coombe, Prebendary of Canterbury 

Rev. Mr. Coplestone, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 

Thomas Copley, Esq. Neither-Hall, Doncaster 

Sir George Cornewall, Bart. M. P. 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Corser, Bridgnorth 

Sir Stephen Cotterell, &c. &c. &c. 

Messrs. Cowley and Co. Booksellers^ Bristol 



Samuel C. Cox, Esq. a Welsh Judge * 2 Sets 

Richard Cox, Esq. Quartly, Hants 4 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Coxe, &c. &c. &c. Bemerton, Wilts 

Rev. Mr. Coxe, Harley-Street 

Mr. Samuel Crane, Worcester 

Mr. Henry Craven, Trinity College, Oxford 

Richard Crawshay, Esq. Cyfartha^ Glamorganshire 2 Sets 

Miss Creswell, Bath 

Mr. Creswell, Trinity College, Oxford 

Richard Croft, Esq. Old Burlington-Street 2 Sets 

Rev. John Crofts 

George Crooke, Esq. Kemshot-Park, Hants 

Mr. John B. Cross, King-Square, Bristol 

Mrs. Cumming, Camden-Place, Bath 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Curteis, Vicar of Seven oaks, Kent 

Rev. Trotman Curties, Fellow of Corpus Christi College 

John C. Curwen, Esq. M. P, 2 Sets 

Mrs. Cust, Grantham 

Dr. Dale, London 

Dr. Dalton, Camberweil 

Professor Dalzell, Edinburgh 

John Daniel, Esq. Mincing-Lane 

Mr. Darnell, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

W. Y. Davenport, Esq. Davenport-House, Salop 

Rev. Richard Davies, Crickhowell, Breconshire 

Miss Davies 

Rev. Dr. Davies, Chfton 

Somerset Davies, Esq. Croft Castle, Herefordshire 2 Sets 

Henry Davies, Esq. Presteigne 

James Davies, Esq. Kington, Herefordshire 

Mr. John James Davies, Attorney at Law, Presteigne 

Captain Richard Davies. Crickhowell, Breconshire 

Rev. Richard Daviesy Vicar of Tetbury 



Mrs. DavIeSj, Badminton 

Mr. Davies, Rhisgog, Radnorshire 5 Sets 

Rev. William Davies^ A.M. Vicar of Llangors 

D. Davies^ Esq. Swansea Q Sets 

William Davies^ Esq. Cringell 

Mr. Edmund Davies,, Rhisgog 

Rev. Richard Davies,, Vicar of Brecon^ &c. 

Rev. Richard Davies^ jun. of ditto 

William Davies^ Esq. Brecon 

Rev. John Davies^ Vice Master of Trinity College,Cambridge 

Dr. Davies^ M. D. Carmarthen 

Morgan Thomas Davies, Esq. Swansea 

Rev. Dr. Davies, Macclesfield 

Richard Hart Davis, Esq. Clifton 

Rev. Mr. Dean, Brazen Nose College, Oxford 

Martin Deane, M. D. Ludlow 

Rev. Mr. Deane, Dudmarton 

Joseph Denman, M. D. Bakewell, Derbyshire 2 Sets 

Dr. Denman, M. D. Old Burlington-Street 2 Sets 

Thomas Denman, Esq. Lincoin's-Inn 2 Set* 

Richard Deane, Esq. Winchelsea 

Mr. Deane, Trinity College Oxford 

Rev. Mr. Dennison 

William Desmond, Esq. New Palace Yard 2 Sets 

Sir John Dick, &c. &,c. See. Upper Harley-Street ^ Sets 

William L. Dilewyn, Esq. 

Rev. Mr. Dodd, Magdalen College, Cambridge 

Rev. P. Dodd, Camberwell 

Sir Wiriiam Dolben, Bart. M. P. ^ Set^ 

William Dolby, Esq. Brizes, Essex 

Robert Dolbyn, Esq. Recorder of Waterford 2 S^ts 

Andrew Douglas, Esq. Portland-Place 

Rev. Robert DoUglas, Salop 

Eev.Dr. Dowdesweli 



Mr. John Dowding, Worcester 
Mrs. Do well. Cote, near Bristol 
Richard Downes, Esq. Hereford 
John Dowse, Esq. Great James-vStreet, Bedford-Row 
Rev. Matthew D'Oyley, Buxted, Sussex- 
Sir Francis Drake, Bart. ^ Sets 
Fraficis Drake, Esq. 
John Drew, Esq. Chichester 2 Sets 

Driscot, Esq. Barrister at Law, Dublin 2 Setfe 

Rev. Dr. Drought, Bath 

Rev. J. Drought, A. M. Claines, near Worcest(ir 

Simeon Droz, Esq. Portland-Place 

Rev. Dr. Hay Drummond, Canon of Christ Church 

Robert DiifF, Esq. Finsbury-Square 

Jonathan Duncan, Esq. Governor of Bombay 2 Sets 

Christopher Dunkin, Esq. Southwark 

Rev. Dr. Duval, Canon of Windsor 2 Sefe 

Mr. Samuel Dyer, Bristol 

Jeremiah Dyson, Esq. &c. &c. Sec. g Sets 

Thomas Eagle, Esq. Bristol 
Rev. Edward Earle, High Ongar, Essex 
Hinton East, Esq. Brazen Nose College, Oxford 
John F. Edgar, Esq. Bristol 

Edington, Esq. New Bond-Street 

Richard Edmonds, Esq. Exchequer Pleas Office 

The late Rev. Mr. Archdeacon Edwardes 

Samuel Edwards, Esq. Cotham Lodge 

Mr. Thomas Egerton, Bookseller, Whitehall Sets 

Rev. Mr. Elgee, Rector of Wexford 2 Sets 

Rev. Dr. Elrington, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dwblin 

Isaac El ton:, Esq, Hill-House 

Edmund Estcourt, Esq. Lincoln's-Inn-Fields G Sets 

John Evans, Esq. Byletts^ Herefordshire 



Mr, Hugh Evans^jun. Llandilo, Carmarthenshire 
Kev. Dr. Evans, Prebendary and Archdeacon of Norwich 
Hugli P. Evans, Esq. Noyadd, Radnorshire 2 Set$ 

Rev. J. Evans, Vicar of Newport, Monmouthshire 

Robert Farquhar, Esq. Portland-Place 

William Fawkener, Esq. &c. &c. &c. £ Sets 

Rev. James Fawcett, B. D. Norfolk 

Rev. Joseph F. Fearon, Prebendary of Chicheslex 

Ralph Fenwick, M. D. Durham 

Rev. Edmund Ferrers, Cheriton, Hants 

Mr. John Fewster, Surgeon, Thornbury 

William T. Fitzgerald, Esq. 

Thomas Fitzherbert, Esq. Portland-Place 

Robert Fleetwood, Esq. Victualling Office 

Joseph Fletcher, Esq, Great Ealing ^ Sets 

Rev. John Foley, Newent, Gloucestershire 

Rev. Mr, Foote, Prebendary of Rochester 

Lady Ford, Oakedge, Shropshire . "2 Sets 

Mr. H. F. Ford, Chfton 

Mr. William Ford, Manchester 

John Fordyce, Esq. Birchin-Lane 

Rev. Dr. Fothergill, Tiverton € Sets 

B. Fountaine, Esq, Harford-Hall, Norfolk 

Rev. Mr. Foxcroft, Winterbourne 

Miss Foxcroft, Halstead, Yorkshire 

William Fowler, Esq. Chichester 

Thomas Hodges Fowler, Esq. Abbey Cum Hir, Rad- 
norshire £ Sets 

Mrs. Fowler, of ditto 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Franklin, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 

Thomas Franklyi^, Esq. Barrister at Law, Pwl-y-wrach 
Glamorganshire * 

Rev. Peter A. Franquefort, Irelan<i 2 Set? 



Captain Frederick, Glanark^ near Crickhowell 2 Sets 

Francis Freeling, Esq. &c. &c. &c. General Post Office 2 Sets 
Rev. W. J. French, Bow 

Mrs. Fryer, Wrexham 2 Seti 

John Fuller, Esq. M. P. Devonshire-Place 2 Sets 

Lady Furst, Hill-Court 

Messrs. Gameau &Co. Booksellers, Albemarle-^treet 12 Sets 
JohnW. Giirbett, Esq. Lieutenant-Colonel of the 

Radnor Militia 2 Sets 

-Christopher Gardiner, Esq. Minchin Hampton 
Rev. WiUiam Gamier, Prebendary of Winchester 
Rev. Thomas Garnier, Vicar of Froyle, Hants 
Rev. Mr. Gatehouse, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
Admiral Geil, Crickhowell 2 Sets 

Peter Giles, Esq. F. R.S. Streatham, Surrey 
Mr. Girot 

Rev. Dr. Glasse^, &c. &c. Sec. 
George Glenny, Esq. Russel-Square 

Rev. Dr. Gooch, &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

Rev. Df . Goodall 

Rev. William Goodenough, Yate, Gloucestershire 2 Sets 
John Goodrich, Esq. Energlyn, Glamorganshire 2 Sets 

Rev. James Gordon, &c. Ireland 2 Sets 

George Gordon, Esq. Sydenham 
John Gordon, Esq. Donhead-Hall 
Robert Gordon, Esq. Lewston 

Charles Goring, Esq. 2 Sets 

Charles Goring, Esq. Weston Park, Sussex 
William Goring, Esq. Great Portland-Street 
John Gosling, Esq. Upper Fitzroy-Street 
William Gosling, Esq. Somerset-Place 
Richard Gough, Esq. Enfield 
Mrs. Gough, Brianstone-Street^ Portman-Square 



Rev. Mi. Graham, All Souls College, Oxford 

Rev. Dr. Graves, Trinity College, Dublin 

Rev. John Greig, White Waltham, Bei-ks 

Thomas Green, Esq. Maryborough, Yorkshire 

John Lane Green, Esq. 

Mr. Hamilton Green, Parslow 

William Greenly, Esq. Titley-Court, Herefordshirfe 

Madame GrefFulhe, Portland- Place 

George De-Lyne Gregory, Esq. Hungerford-Lodge^ 

Lincolnshire 
Kev. Edward Gregory, Langar, Nottinghamshire 
Rev. David Griffith, Brecon 

John Griffith, Esq. Q Sets 

Rev. Charles Griffith, Brecon 
Rev. James Griffith, University College, Oxford 
The late Mr. Philip Griffith, Merthir Tidvil, Glamor* 

ganshire 2 Sets 

Richard Griffith, Esq. Cardiff 2 Sets 

: — Grose, Esq. 

Shaw Grosett, Esq. Clifton 

Edward Grubb, Esq. Great Queen-Street, Lincoln^s- 

Inn-Fields 
Mr, Edward Guest, Dudley 
Rev. Mr. Gutch, All Souls College, Oxford 
Mrs. Gwinnett, Penlyn Castle, Glamorganshire 
John Gwinnett, Esq. Common-Hill, Worcester 
Thynne H. Gwynne, Esq. Buckland, Breconshire 2 Sets 
J. H. M. Gwynne, Esq. Llanelveth, Radnqrshire 2 Sets-^ 

Rev. Mr. Haistone, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge 

Mr. Hale, Christ Church 

Samuel C. Hall, Esq. St. John's College, Cambridge 

Rev. Dr. Hall, Canon of Christ Church Q Sets 

Rev. Dr. Hall, Rector of 4.rdshaw, Ireland ^ Sets 



Benjamin Hall_, Esq. Barrister at Law S Sets 

Rev. Dr. Hallam, Canon of Windsor 2 Sets 

Rev. R. W. Hallifax, A. M. Standish, Gloucestershire 

Mr. Hamer^ Corpus Ciiristi College, Oxford 

Rev. Dr. Hamilton, Rector of St. Martin's 

Rev. Dr. R. Hamilton^ Rector of St. Olave, Old-Jewry 

Hugh Hamilton, Esq. Clare-Street, Dublin 

Mrs. Henrietta H anbury, Queen-Ann-Street, West 2 Sets 

Mrs. Frances Hanbury, Ditto 2 S;ets 

Messrs. Han well and Parker, Booksellers, Oxford 2 Sets 

JMrs. Hardinge, Grove, Seven-Oaks, Kent 

Rev. Henry Hardinge, Rector of Stanhope, in the 

County of Durham 2 Sets 

Mr. Charles Hardinge, A. M. University College;, 

Oxford 2 Sets 

Captain George Nicholas Hardinge, of the Royal 

Navy 2 Sets 

Henry Hardinge, Esq. Lieutenant in the Arniy 2 Sets 

Rev. Dr. Hardwicke, Sopworth-House, AViltshire 2 Sets 
James Hare, Esq. M. P. 2 Sets 

Benjamin Harenc, Junior, Esq. Pembroke College, 

Cambridge 2 Sets 

John Harford, Esq. Bleize-Castle 2 Sets 

Francis Hargrave, Esq. Barrister at Law 
Rev. John Harley, Rector of Presteigne 
John Harman, Esq. Frederick-Place, Old-Jewry 
James Lloyd Harris, Esq. Kington, Herefordshire 2. Sets- 
George Hartwell, Esq. 2 Sets 

John Harvey, Esq. Guildford-Street 2 Sets 

John Harvey, Esq. Portland-Place 

William Harvey, Esq, White Fryar-Street, Dublin 2 Sets^ 
Rev. Mr. Harwell, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
Rev. J. D. Haslewood, Devonshire-Street, Portland- 
Place 



§)uli6critiet0» It 

James Haworth^ M. D. &c. &:c. 8cc. Lincoln's-Inn- 

Fields 2 Sets 

Rev. C. Haynes, Rector of Siston 

Mr. Haynes, St. Augiistine's-Place, Bristol 

Sir Isaac Heard_, Garter King at Anns 2 Sets, 

The late Colonel Keathcote^ Hereford 

Rev. iMr. Heatbcote, Master of Hackney-School 

Ames Helli^ar, Esq. Bath 

Mr. Ames Hellicar^ Junior^ Bristol 

Mr. G. Hellicar, Bristol 

Mr. Joseph Hellicar^ Bristol 

Rev. Dr. Hemming,, Hampton^ Middlesex 

Rev. Mr. Henley^ Howland-Street^ Fitzroy-Square 

Rev. Edward Herbert, Archdeacon of Aghadoe, Ireland 

Rev. William Herringham^ Chipping Ongar^ Essex 

Mr. Thomas Hetling, Attorney at Law, Sodbury 

Mr. Thomas Hewitt, Manchester 

Rev. Dr. Hey, Passenham, Northamptonshire 

Mr. D. Higgs, Sodbmy 

Mr. W. Higgs, St. Paul's, Bristol 

Sir Richard Hill, Bart. M. P. 2 Sets 

Charles Hill, Esq. Wick 

Joseph Hill, Esq. Saville-Row % Sets 

Rev. Averill Hill, Limerick 

Richard Hill, Esq. Cardiff Sets 

J. Hinckley, Esq. F. S. A. 

Mr. Thomas Hindley, Ivianchester 

Rev. Mr. Hipgame, Jesus College, Cambridge 

Sir John Cox Hippesley, Bart. Lower Grosvenor- 

Street ^ SeU 

Rev. Joshua Hird, Fellow of King's College, Cam- 
bridG:e 

George Hoare, Esq. Jewell Office, Tower 

Dr. Hobbes, M. D. Swansea 



lit ^ttlJScrCbers* 

Isaac Hobhouse, Esq. 6 Sets 

Samuel Hobson^ Esq. Assistant Barrister for the 

County of Waterford 2 Sets 

Thomas Fowler Hodges, Esq.Abbey-Cwm-hir^Radnar 2 Sets 
Mr. Holborough, Tockington 

Mr. Robert Hole, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge 
Samuel Homfray, Esq. Pendaran-Place, Glamor- 
ganshire 2 Sets 
l>aniel Hopkins, Esq. Leadenhall-Street 
William Hooper^ B. D. Fellow of University College, 

Oxford 
John Archer Houblon, Esq. Great Hallingbury, Essex 
Henry Howard, Esq. M. P. Thornbury 
Rev. Benjamin Howell, Rector of Boughwood 
Thomas Bridges Hughes, Esq. Barrister at Law 2 Sets 

Dr. Hughes, Jesus College, Oxford 
Mr. Hughes, Ditto 

Rev. John Hughes, Vicar of Pembroke 
The late Rev. Mr. Huish, Rector of Pembridge, 

Herefordshire 2 Sets 

Rev. John Huish, late of Ditto 2 Sets 

Rev. Francis Huish, Rector of Clisthydon, Devonshire 2 Sets 
John Huitson, Esq. Newman-Street 
J. Humphreys Esq, Barrister at Law, Llantrissentj» 

Glamorganshire 
Miss Hunt, at Mrs. Bowdler^s, Park-Street, Bath 
David Hunter, Esq. Blackheath 

Rev. Mr. Huntley, Boxwell-Court 2 Sets 

Herbert Hurst, Esq, Gabalva, Glamorganshire 

Samuel Jackson, Esq, 2 Sets 

John Jackson, Esq. Manchester 

W. H. R. Jackson, Esq. Mall, Clifton, 

Sir Walter H. James, Bart. Devonshire-Place 3 Sets 



Richard James, Esq. Ightham, Sevenoaks, Kent 2 Sets 
Rev. Morgan James,, Brecon 2 Sets 

Mr. James, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
Thomas Jameson, Esq. Fire-Com't 
Rev. Mr. James, Rector of Rememham, Berkshire 
John Jeffreys, Esq. Peckham 
John Jeffreys, Esq. Swansea 
John Jeffreys, Junior, Esq. Ditto 
Walter Jeffreys, Esq. Brecon 
Elias Jenkins, Esq. Neath 

X.ewis Jenkins, Esq. Ditto 2 Sets 

Mr. John Jenkinson, Manchester 
Robert Jenner, Esq. Wenvoe-Castle, Glamorgan- 
shire 6 Sets 
Rev. William Jephson, Camberwell 

Mr. D. Jephson, Ditto 2 Sets 

Mr, J. T. Jephson, West Bromwich, Warwickshire 
Sir Hugh Inglis, Bart. &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

Rev. Dr. Ingram, New College, Oxford 
Rev. P. Ingram, Stamford, Worcestershire 
Richard Ingram, Esq. Worcester 
Mr. Ingram, Trinity College, Oxford 

John Innes, Esq. 2 Sets 

Thomas Johnes, Esq. MP. 5 Sets 

Rev. Samuel Johnes, Vicar of Allhallows Barking 2 Sets 
Lieutenant General Johnson, Ireland 2 Sets 

Cuthbert Johnson, Esq. Swansea 
Richard Johnson, Esq. Stratford-Place 
Peter Johnson, Esq. Percy-Street 
Major Johnson, Swansea 
Benjamin Johnson, Esq. Barrister at Law 
J. Johnson, Esq. 

Mr. Johnstone, Trinity College, Cambridge 
Thomas Tyrwhit Jones, Esq. M. P. Clarence Lodge 



Heniy Jones, Esq. Gravesend 
Daniel Jones, Esq. of Lantvvit-Major, Glamorgan- 
shire £ Set^ 
John Jones/ Esq. Cardiff-Arms 2 Sets 
John Jones, Esq. St. Helen's, Glamorganshire 2 Sets 
Harford Jones, Esq. Resident at Bagdad 2 Sets 
Theophilus Jones, Esq. Brecon lo Sets 
Edward Jones, Esq. Llandovery, Carmarthenshire 2 Sets 
Rev. Dr. Jones, Redland 10 Sets 
Thomas Jones, Esq. Stapleton 

Rev. Richard Jones, Charfield 2 Sets 

Mr. Jones, A. B. St. John's College, Cambridge 
Rev. Thomas Jones, Fellow of Trinity College, 

Cambridge 
Rev. Thomas Jones, Wickwar 2 Sets 

G. Jones, Esq. Swansea 

Rev. B. Jones, Swansea, Vicar of Cheriton, Hants 
Mr. John Jones, Neath 
Mr. John Jones, Surgeon, Ditto 
Mr. W. Jones, Attorney at Law, Swansea 
Mr. O. Jones, Thames-Street 
Mr. Edward Jones, Harpist of the Prince of Wales 

Rev. Leland, Croydon, Surrey 2 Sets 

Ellas Isaac, Esq. Worcester 

James Kearne}'^, Esq. Garret's-Town, in the County 

of Cork 
Miss Keene, Bath 4 Sets 

Benjamin Keene,Esq.Charles-Street,Berkeley-Square ^ Sets 
Rev. Mr. Keet, Hatfield, Herts. 
William Kemys, Esq. Maindee, Monmouthshire . 
Edward Kendall, Esq. Langattock Crickhowell 2 Sets 

Mr. Joseph Fr. de Kergariou de Laninou en Bretagne 
Rev. Mr. Kett^ Trinity College, Oxford 2 Sets 



Heni7 Jarrett Key, Esq. Abchurch-Lane 2 Sefe 

Rev. Mr. Keysall 

Mr. Kilpin 

Thomas King, Esq. Nok§t Herefordshire 

Rev. Mr. King, Olveston o gg^ 

Henry King, Esq. Bristol 

Rev. Mr. King, Brazen-Nose College, Oxford 

Colonel Kingscote, Kingscote 

James Kinnersley, Esq. Ludlow g Sets 

Lieutenant-Colonel William Kirkpatrick 2 Sets 

Richard Kirwan, Esq. F. R. S. 

Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. Elton, near Ludlow 2 Sets 

Mr. William Knight, Park-Row, Bristol 2 Sets 

Henry Knight, Esq. Tythegstone, Glamorganshire 

Rev. Mr. Knottesford^ Hadleigh, Suffolk 2 Sets 

James Lackington, Esq. 2 Sets 

Lieutenant-Colonel Lambard 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Lambert, Fellow of Trinity College 

Samuel Langford, Esq. Peckham 

Dr. Latham, See. M. D. Bedford-Row 2 Sets 

James Law, Esq. Portland-Place 

Rev. Dr. Law, Archdeacon of Rochester 

Dr. Lawrence, M. D. Cambridge 

George Urquhart Lawtie, Esq. 53^ Upper Mary-le-bone 

Street 
John Martin Leake, Esq. Harley-Street 
Edward Lee, Esq. M. P. 2 Sets 

Capel Hanbury Leigh, Esq. Pontipool 2 Sets 

Mrs. Leigh, ditto 2 Sets; 

Rev. Charles Lesley 
Captain Lewes, Brecon Militia 
Rev Richard Lewis, Limerick 
Rev. Lewis Lewis, Gwynfer, Carmarthenshire 



John Lewis^ Esq. Byletts, Shropshire 

Rev. Mr. Lewis, Corsham 

David Lewis, Esq. Clan y Rhyd, Carmarthenshire 

Hugh Leycester, Esq. M. P. &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

Mrs. Liell, Richmond, Surrey 2 Seta 

John Liptrap, Esq. Mile-End 2 Sets 

Rev. R. Litchford, Boothby-Pagnel, Lincolnshire 

Rev. William Llewellyn, Thornbury 2 Seta 

John Llewellin, Esq. Penllergare, Glamorganshire 2 Sets 

John Llewellin, Esq. of Welsh St. Donats^ 

Glamorganshire 2 Sets 

Griffith Llewellin, Esq. Margam, Glamorganshire 2 Sets 
John Lloyd, Esq. Dinas, Brecon shire 2 Sets 

Thomas Lloyd, Esq. Bronwydd, Cardiganshire 
John Lloyd, Esq. Aberannell, Breconshire * 

David Lloyd, Esq. Brecon 
Rev. Evan Lloyd, Orsett, Essex 
Rev. Bartholomew Lloyd, Fellow of Trinity College 

Dublin 
Rev. William Lockton, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
Rev. Dr. Lodge, Chancellor of Armagh 2 Sets 

Edward Long, Esq. Worcester 
Mr. Longfellow, Brecon 
Colonel Loraine, Wey mouth-Street 
Rev. Verney Lovett, Vicar of Bandon, Ireland: 
Jonathan Lovett, Esq. Deputy^ Persian Interpreter to 

the Government of Bombay 
Mrs. Lowe, Park-Street, Grosvenor-Square 2 Sets 

Richard Lowndes, Esq. Red-Lion-Square 
P. J. Luai;d, Esq. Worcester 
Rev. Dr. Ludlow, Sopworth 

Samuel Ludlow, Esq. Henrietta-Street, Coven t-Garden^ 
Mr. Luffinan, Geographer, Ball-Alley, Colemi^n-Street 
William Lukin, Esq, Royal Navy 



Sir Stephen Lushington^ Bart. M. P. &c. Upper 

Harley-Street 
Mr. Lury, Lower Hazel^ Olveston 
Samuel Lysons, Esq. F. R. S. and F. S. A. Winslow 

Rev. Mr. Maber, Rector of Merthir Tidvill^ Glamor- 
ganshire 

Dr. Macdonell, M. D. Ireland 

Colonel Mac Lachlan 

Donald Macleod, Esq. in Geannies Q Sets 

John Macnamara, Esq. Langoed Castle^Breconshire 4 Sets . 

Rev. Spencer Madan, Birmingham 

Rev. Mr. Madewell_, in Scotland 

Rev. Dr. Magee, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin 

Samuel Manesty, Esq. Resident at Bussorah 

Sir William Manners, Bart. Oxford-Street 2 Sets 

John W. Mansfield, Esq. Swansea 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Mant, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 

Thomas Markham, Esq. Glamorganshire 2 Sets 

Rev. Herbert Marsh, B. D. Fellow of St. John's 
College, Cambridge 

Rev. Mr. Marsh, Christ Church, Oxford 

Rev. Mr. Marshall, Lincoln College, Oxford 

Rev. Mr. Marshall, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 

Mr. Edward Marshall, Bradford, Wilts 

William Byam Martin, Esq. Portland-Place 2 Sets 

Mrs. Mathew, Rathbone-Place 

Thomas Matthias, Esq. &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

Rev. Thomas Maurice, Author of the Indian 
Antiquities 

Mr. Hugh Maurice, Thomas-Street, Bristol 

Mr. Joseph Maurice, Surgeon, Bristol 

Thomas Maybery, Esq. Brecon 

Peter Mellish, Esq. Brunswick-Square 

f 



Mil ^nhmittts. 

R. M. Mence^ Esq. Worcester 

Rev. Benjamin Mence^ Fellow of Worcester College, 

Oxford 
Richard Mence, Esq. Temple 
Thomas Meredith, Esq. Knighton, Radnorshire 
Thomas Meredith, Esq. Brecon 

Paul C. Methuen, Esq. Lower Grovesnor-Street 2 SeU 

Mr. Methuen, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 
Mr. Edward Michal, Bradford, Wilts 

VV^illiam Miller, Esq. Ozel worth 

Sir Francis Millman, Bart. M. D. 

John Miers, Esq. Cadoxton-Place, Glamorganshire 

Miss M ill grove, Thornbury 

William Minier, Esq. Adelphi-Terrace 

Mr. Minoch, Trinity College, Oxford 

Kev. John Mitchell, Fellow of Worcester College, 
Oxford 

Mr. Mitford, Fellow of Oriel College, Ditto 

Mr. Hugh Moises, University College, Ditto 

William MoncrifFe, M. D. Bristol 

Basil Montague, Esq. Paper Buildings, Inner Temple 

Dr. Moody, LL. D. Turnham-Green 2 Sets 

.Abraham Moore, Esq. Barrister at Law 

Rev. James Moore, Wimbledon, Surrey 

Rev. Thomas Moore 

Mrs. Hannah More 

Charles Morgan, Esq. M. P. $ Set§ 

Rev. William Morgan, Brecon 

Edward Morgan, Esq. Recorder of Brecoo 

Edward Morgan, Esq. LlandaiF 8 Set* 

Mr. Charles Morgan, Talgarth, Breconshire 

Mr. John Morgan, Brecon 

Mr. C. Morgan, St. Peter's College, Cambridgff 

Jblo Morgwng. 



^ttbsmtiersi, Ux 



Hev. Dr. Morrice,, Secretary of the Society for the 

Propagation of the Gospel 
John Morris, Esq. Clasemont, Glamorganshire 
Walter M. Mosely, Esq. Glasshampton, Worcestershire 
Michael Moseiy, Esq. King's Bench Walks^ Temple 
Rev. Dr. Moss, Prebendary of St. PauFs 
Rev. Mr. Moulding, Rector of Rotherham^ Essex 
John Moultrie, Esq. Aston-Hail^ near Shifnal, 

Shropshire 
Mr. Mount, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
Abel Moj^sey, Esq. &c. 8cc. 8cc. 2 Sets 

Abel Moysey, Jun. Esq. Lincoln's-Inn 
Rev. Mr. Mulso, Abergavenny 
George J. Murphy, Esq. Mus. D. Dublin 
Sir John Macgregor Murray, Bart 
Sir John C. Musgrave, Bart. Portland-Place 
Rev. Dr. Myddleton, Rotherliithe 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Myddleton, Ditto 

Rev. Slade Nash, near Worcester 

Richard Nelms, Esq. Bradley- House 

Rev. Mr. Neve, Vicar of Sodbury 

Rev., Mr. New, Vicar of St. Phihp's, Bristo] 

James Nibbs^ Esq. 

Mrs. Nibbs 

Rev. Dr. Nicholas, Great Ealing ^ Sets 

William Nicholl, Esq. Barrister at Law, Great 

George- Street, Hanover-Square Q. Sets 

John Nichols, Esq. Red Lion-Passage, Fleet-Street 
Mr. Samuel Nicholson, Manchester 
Rev. Robert Nixon, A. M. Foot's Cray, Kent 
Robert Nixon, Esq. F. R. S. 2 Sete 

William Nodes, Esq. New Cavendisii-Stree* 
Dr. Noehden, Eton College 



Major Noelj of the Worcester Militia 

George Norman^, Esq. Bromley Common, Kent S Sets 

Rev. Francis North, Rector of St. Mary's^ 

Southampton 
Messrs. North, Brecon 
Thomas Northmore, Esq. Bentinck-Street 
Mr. Norton, Bookseller, Bristol 6 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Nott, All Soul's College, Oxford 
Peter NouaiUes, Jun. Esq. Greatness, near Sevenoaks, 

Kent 2 Sets 

Mrs. Nowell, Dorset-Street 2 Sets 

Mr. Geoi'ge Nutcombe, Priory, Warwickshire 

Silvester O'Hallaran, Esq. Limerick 

Rev. Mr. Oldnall, Rector of St. Nicholas, Worcester 

Mr. William Ogilvy, Bread-Street, Hull 

L. Oliver, Esq. late of Nook, in the County of Hants Q, Sets 

W^illiam Oram, Esq. Harley-Street 

Dowell O'Reilly, Esq. Dublin 

Mr. Ord, Trinity College, Oxford 

Sir Wilham Ouseley, LL. D. &c. &c. &c. 

Ralph Ouseley, Esq. Limerick 

Gore Ouseley, Esq. East-Indies 

Thomas Owen, Esq. Carmarthenshire 

Rev, Mr. Owen, Clifton, Bristol 

Rev. John Owen, Archdeacon of Richmond 

Mr. William Owen, Author of the Welch Dictionary 

James Pain, Esq. Maidenhead 2 Sets 

Rev. Richard Palmer, Grantham 

Robert Pardoe, Jun. Esq. Bradley, Worcestershire 

The late Rev. Dr. Parker^ Rector of St. James, 

Westminster 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Parker, Oxford 



Thomas Parker, Esq. Worcester 

Rev. Mr. Parker, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford 

Mrs. Parry, Gressford r.odge, Denbighshire 2 Sets 

Sir William Paxton, Middleton Hall, Carmar- 
thenshire 2 Sets 

Charles Partridge, Esq. Bristol 

Mr. Pasquier, Gray's-Inn-Square 

Sir George O. Paul, Bart. Lower Grosvenor-Street 2 Sets 

Robert Paul, Esq. Assistant Barrister for the County 

of Waterford 2 Sets 

Samuel P. Peach, Esq. Tockington 4 Sets 

Mr. Pearce, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

Miss Frances Pearson, Percy-Street 

Peter Peirson, Esq. Paper Buildings, Inner Temple 

The late Henry Cressett Pelham, Esq. Counde Hall^ 

Shropshire 2 Sets 

Christopher R. Pemberton, M. D. Great George-Street, 
Hanover-Square 

Granville Penn, Esq. Secretary of State's Office 2 Sets 

John Penn, Esq. Spring-Garden 2 Sets 

Rev. Dr. Penny ^ Sets 

Mrs. Penny man 

Sir William Pepys, Bart, a Master in Chancery 2 Sets 

Dr. Percival, Manchester 

Rev. Dr. Percy 

Rev. David Peter, Carmarthen 

Mr. Peters, Gower-Street 

Henry Peters, Esq. M. P. Park-Street, Grosvenor- 
Square 

Richard Mansell Phillipps, Esq. Sketty, Glamor- 
ganshire 2 Sets^ 

Mrs. Catharine Philipps, Hampton-Court 

Mrs. Joyce Phihpps, Hampton Court 

Mrs. Jane Philipps, Picton Castle^ Pembrokeshire 



Ijcii ^hmiUts. 

John Philips^ Esq. Llandilo^ Carmarthen 
Rev. Luke Philips, Vicar of Grain, Kent 
John Phihps, Esq. Fen church-Street 
Joseph Philhmore, Esq. Christ Church, Oxford 
WiUiam Philhmore, Esq. Barrister at Law 
John Philhps, Esq. Carmarthen 
Mr. Philhps^ Frenchay, Bristol 

Humphry Phillpot, Esq'. g Sets 

Mr. Phillott, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
Rev. Barre Phipps 
J. P. Picard, Esq. 

Rev. WiUiam Pigott, Rector of Edgmond 
Mr. Pigott, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
Rev. Mr. Pinckney, Ditto 
John Pinkerton, Esq. Pimlico, &c. &c. &c. 
Mr. Player, Elberton 

Mr. John Player, Tockington, near Bristol 
Miss Player 
Miss Mary Player 

Rev. Henry Plimley, Rector of Shoreditch 
Rev. Mr. Plumbtree, Prebendary of Worcester 
Thomas Plumer, Esq. King's Counsel 
Miss Polhlll, Chipstead, Sevenoaks 

William Pollock, Esq. Secretary of State's Office 2 Sets 
James Poole, Esq. Barrister at Law- 
Thomas J. Powell, Esq. Berwick-House, Shropshire 
John Kynaston Powell, Esq. M. P. 

Thomas H. Powell, Esq. Barrister at Law, Brecon 2 Sets 
Rev. Thomas Powell, Cantref 

Walter Powell,-Esq. Brecon 2 Sets 

John Powell, Esq. Brecon 2 Sets 

Sir Gabriel and Lady Powell '^ Sets 

Thomas Jelf Powis, Esq. Berwick-House, Salop 
Rev. Mr. Poyntz, Rector of Tormartou 
Mr. Nathaniel Poyntz^ Ditto 



Mr. Pratt 

Sir G. B. Prescott, Bart. Theobald's-Park, Herts. 
Rev. Dr. Prettyman, Prebendary of Norwich 
Rev. William Price^ LL.D. Chaplain to His Royal 

Highness the Prince of Wales 
Richard Price, Esq. M. P. 2 Set$ 

Mr. Rice Price, Surgeon, Hay, Breconshire 2 Sets 

Samuel Price, Esq. Coroner and Surgeon, Brecon 
Rev. J. Price, Trinity College, Oxford 
Theophilus Price, Esq. Harborne 
Nicholas Price, Esq. Saintfield, Downshire, Ireland 
John Price, Esq. LlandafF Q, Set§ 

Roger Price, Esq. Castle Madoc, Breconshire 
Penry Price, Esq. Rhayader, Radnorshire 
Thomas Price, Esq. Builth, Breconshire 
Thomas Price, Esq. Birmingham 
John Prichard, Esq. Bridgend, Glamorganshire 
Mr. Thomas Prichard, Ross 
Mr. D. Prichard, Builth, Breconshire 
Mr. James Cooles Prichard 

Miss Pritchard, near Ambleside, Westmorland 2 Sets 

John Pritchard, Esq. Dolevelin, Radnorshire 2 Sets 

Charles Pritchard, Esq. Brecon 

Captain Puget, Royal Navy 2 Sets 

Lieutenant-General Sir James Pulteney, Bart. 
Henry James Pye, Esq. &c. &c. &c. 
Rev. Reginald Pyndar, Hadsor^ near Worcester 
Jonathan Pytts, Esq. 

Alexander Raby, Esq. ^ 2 Sets 

Rev Dr. RadcliiFe, Prebendary of Canterbury 
p. Raikes, Esq. Gloucester 
Rev, Mr. Raikes, Ditto 
Rev. Dr. Raine, Charterhouse 



Ijct^j Subscribers* 

General Rainsford^ &c. &c. &c. Soho-Square 
Rev. Charles J. Rainsford^ Powick_, near Worcester 
James Ramsden^ Esq. of the College of Physicians 
Rev. Benson Ramsden_, A. M. Rector of Stanbridge, 

Essex 
Rev. Mr. Randolph^ Corpus Chri&ti College^ Oxford 
Joshua Reeves,, Esq. Canterbury-Square 
John Reeves, Esq. 
James Rennell, Esq. &c. &c. &c, Suffolk-Street, 

Middlesex-Hospital 
Rev. J. H. Renouard, Trinity College, Cambridge 
Jacob Reynardson, Esq. HoUywell, near Stamford 
William Reynolds, Esq. Colebrook-dale, Shropshire 
Mrs. WiUiam Richards, Cardiff 
Rev. Benjamin Richardson, Rector of Farley, Hun- 

gerford 
Rev. Mr, Richardson, Bennett College, Cambridge 
Mr. Richardson, Iron-Acton 

Samuel Richardson, Esq. Hensol, Glamorganshire 2 Sets 
Mr. Richardson, Druggist, Bristol 
Rev. Mr. Roberts, Cambridge 
Rev. Peter Roberts, Arundel-Street, Strand 
Edward Roberts, Esq. Little Ealing 2 Sets 

Mr. Roberts, Stoke's-Croft, Bristol 
Rev. J. R. Roberts, Great Portland-Street 
G. P. Rogers, Esq. Swansea 

Stephen Rolleston, Esq. Secretary of State's Office 2 Sets 
George Rolph, Esq. Tliornbury 
Mr. Rolph, Surgeon, Peckham . 

Samuel Rom illy, Esq. King's Counsel 
Lieutcnant-General Rooke 
Thomas Rov/erscroft, Esq. Broad-Street 
Rev. xMr. Rudd, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 
Dr. Ruddiman, Charlotte-Street, Portland-Place 



I 



Sir William and Lady Rush, Wimbledon^ Surrey 2 Sets ; 

Richard Rushworth, Esq. Manchester , j 

William Russell, Esq. Barrister at Law, Powick, | 

near Worcester 9, Sets 
James J. Russell, Esq. Limerick 

■ i 

John Sahnon, Esq. Olveston, Gloucestershire ■ 

Mr. Edward Salmon, Surgeon, Thornbury, Gloucestershire , , 

Rev. J. L. Salvador, Grafton-Street, Piccadilly . j 
Sir Robert Salusbury, Bart. M. P. 

• David Samuel, Esq. Bolston, Glamorganshire 2 Sets ! 

Mr. Sandford, Wimbledon, Surrey ■ 
Rev. Charles Sandiford, Gloucester 

Mr. Sangar, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford ^ 
Rev. John Savage, Rector of Beverston 
Captain Saunders, Upton-Grove 

Joshua Saunders, Esq. j 

Rev. Mr. Sayer, Bristol ' i 

J. Sayer, Esq. Hallow-Park, near Worcester I 

David Scott, Esq. Upper Harley-Street ^ Sets ] 

Mr. George Scott, Manchester \ 

Edward Sealy, Esq. Bridgewater j 

Rev. Mr. John Sealy, Ditto 1 

Mr. Selwyn, Corpus Christi College, Oxford ] 
Mr. Serle, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford 

Richard Seymour, Esq. St. John's College, Oxford ' ; 
Mr. Seymour, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

Rev. Joseph Shapland, A. M. Rector of St. Peter's, I 

Worcester * , 

Miss Charlotte Shapland, Marshfield ^ 

Rev. Thomas Shepherd, Limerick ' 

Mr. Shepherd Wotton-under-Edge ' , ~ i 

John Sherborne, Esq. Hereford 2 Sets j 

Rev. T, Shurry ^ i 



Mr. Shute, Park-Street, Bristol 

James Sibbald, Esq. Upper Harley-Street t Sets 

Mr. Sibthorpe, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

RadclifFe Sidebottom, Esq, 4 Sets 

G. Simcocks, Esq. 

Joseph Skey, M. D. Worcester 

Robert Slade, Esq. Doctor's Commons 

Rev. Dr. Small, Prebendary of Gloucester 

Charles Smith, Esq. M. P. Portland-Place 2 Sets 

Colonel Smith, &c. &c. 2 Sets 

Rev, J. Smith, of St. John's College, Cambridge 

Ferdenando Smith, Esq. Barbourne, near Worcester 

Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, Groom of the Bedchamber 

to his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent 
Rev. J. G. Smith, Che-11-esworth, Suffolk, and Chaplain 

to his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent 
Rev. Samuel Snead, Ludlow 

Rev. Tlio. Sockett, Vicar of Ombersley, Worcestershire 
Henry Sockett, Esq. of Crickhovwell, Breconsiiire^ 

Barrister at Law ^ Sets 

Mr. Songar, Trinity College, Oxford 
William Sotheby, Esq. 
William A. Sotheby, Esq. 
Robert Sparkes, Esq. Portland-Place 
Joseph Sparkes, Esq. Bridgenorth 
James Spencer, Esq. Hay, Brecon shire 
John Spicer, Esq. George-Street, Hanover-Square 
Rev. Benjamin Spry, Bristol 2 Sets 

Miss Stanley, Court, near Wrexham 
Henry Stapleton, Esq. 

Richard J. Stark, Esq, Llangharn-Castle, Carmarthen- 
shire 
Henry Stephens, Esq. Chevenage-House 10 Sets 

Prancis Stephens, Esq. Ealing 3 Sets 



William Stevens, Esq. 

Rev. John Stevens 

J. E. Stock, M. D. Bristol 

Mr. Stock, Wickwar, Gloucestershire ^ Sots 

Rev. J. B. Stone, Forest-Hall, Essex 

Rev. Mr. Stone, Brazen-Nose College, Oxford 

Mrs. Stoiighton, Pontipool, Monmouthshire 

Hardinge Stracey, Esq. Upper Harlej-Street 2 Sets 

Edward Stracey, Esq. Ditto 2 Sets 

Edward Stracey, Jun. Esq. Fiudyer-Street, 

Westminster 2 Sets 

Hardinge Stracey, Jun. Esq. Lincoln's-Inn 2 Sets 

Josiah Stracey, Esq. Berners-Street 2 Sets 

William Strode, Esq. Upper Brook-Street 
Mr. Strong, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 
Mr, John Sturge 
Mrs. Elizabfeth Sturge 
Mr. Young Sturge, Westbury-upon-Trini 
Rev. Dr. Sturrock, Archdeacon of Armagh 
Mrs. Sullivan, Queen -Ann-Street East 

R. J. Sullivan, Esq. Grafton-Street, Piccadilly o gets 

John Surtes, Esq. University College, Oxford 
John Swale, Esq. Mildenhall, Suffolk 
Rev. Mr. Swaine, Puckle-Church 
Rev. Joseph Sympson, Stilton, Huntingdonshire 

Henry Tahourdin, Esq. Sydenham 

William Taitt, Esq. Cardiff 2 Sets 

Rev. William Talbot, Elmset, Suffolk 

Rev. Mr. Tavell, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge 

Mr. Taunton, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

Rev. Dr. Thomas Taylor, LL.D. King s Chaplain 

Mr. Charles Taylor, Ludlow 

R. S. Taylor, Esq. Field-C<>urt^ Gray Vina 



l;r\)iii ^n^mi^m* 

Rev. Thomas Thirl wall, A.M. Lecturer of Stepney 

Dr. Thomas, M.I), of Kington, Herefordshire 2 Sets 

John Thomas, Esq. Llwydicoed, Carmarthenshire 2 Seta 

John Thomas, Esq. Cardiff ^ 2 Sets 

Rev. Thomas Thomas, Fobbing, Essex 

Rev. John Thomas, Lucton, Herefordshire 

Rev. Mr. Thomas, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

Mr. Rees Thomas, Swansea 

Mr. Nelson Thomas, Swansea 

Mr. Evan Thomas_, Attorney at Law> Builth, 

Breconshire 
Mr. John Thomas, Langattock, Carmarthenshire 
Rev. Mr. Thomas, Kingswood, Wiltshire 
Rev. Nathaniel Thornbury, Rector of Avening 
Mr. Thornbury, Oriel College, Oxford 
Bache Thornhili, Fsq. Stanton, Derbyshire C Sets 

Samuel Thornton, Esq. M. P. 2 Sets 

Robert Thornton, Esq. M. P. 2 Sets 

Henry Thornton, Esq. M. P. 2 Sets 

Gervas Thorpe, M. D. Ludlow 
Charles Thorpe, Esq. University College, Oxford 
Mr. Ticker, Manchester 
Dr. Tierney, Brighton 

William Tighe, Esq. Ennisteog, L'eland 2 Sets 

Rev. William Tindal, A. M. Chaplain of the Tower 
Mr. Tongar, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 
Henry Tonge, Esq. Devonshire-Street, Portland-Place 
William N. Tonge, Esq. Olveston 
Charles Tottenham, Esq. University College, Oxford 
Charles Hanbury Tracey, Esq. Portland-Place 
The Hon. Mrs. Hanbury Tracey, Ditto 
Edmund Traherne, Esq. Castella, Glamorganshire 2 Sets 
Rev. Dr. Trail 
William B. Trevelyan, Esq. St. John's College^ 

Cvimbridge 



Lady Tri gge, Sa\alle-Row 

Captain Trigge, Gloucester 

Fiennes Trotman, Esq. Siston Court 2 Sets 

Mr. J.F.Tuffiii, London 

Rev. Mr. Turner, Archdeacon of Taunton 2 Sets 

Edmund Turner, Esq. 

Sharon Turner, Esq. &c. &c. &c. Fetherstone- 

Buildings, Hoiborn 2 Sets 

Mr. Turner, St. John's College, Cambridge 
Rev. Mr. Turner, Oriel College, Oxford 
Dr. Turton, M. D. Physician to the King 
Dr. Turton, M. D. Swansea 2 Sets 

William Turton, Esq. Olveston 
Mr. Joseph Turton, Attorney at Law, Olveston 
Mr. Zouch Turton, Attorney at Law, Chepstow 2 Sets 

Mrs. Turton, Swansea 
Miss Turton ' 2 Sets 

General Vallencey, &c. &c. &c. 2 Sets 

Rev. Dr. Valpy, Reading 

G. C. Vanderherst, Esq. Swansea 

Mrs. G. Vansittart, Bisham Abbey, Berks. 2 Sets 

John Vaughan, Esq. Golden-Grove, Carmarthenshire 

Mrs. Vaughan, Portman-Square 

The late Mrs. Vaughan, Twickenham 

Mr. Uphill, Bookseller, Bridge-Street, Covent- 

Garden 2 Sets 

Rev. Dr. Vyse, Rector of Lambeth 

Robert Waddell, Esq. 

Daniel Wait, Jun. Esq. 

Thomas Walbeoffe, Esq. Pen-y-laii, Breconshirc 

James Waie, Esq. Belle Vue, Warwickshire 

William Wall, Esq. Worcestei' 



Ixx ^uiimiUts. 



Samuel Wall, Esq Ditto 

Mr.Walrond g Sets 

Mrs. Walrond 2 Sets 

Rev. Richard Ward, Portman-Street 

Mrs. R. Ward, Hazle, Olveston 

Rev. Mr. Holt Waring 

Mr. Waring, Alton, Hampshire £ Sets 

Rev. Francis Warre, Rector of Cheddon, Somerset- 
shire 

Henry Warre, Esq. Lincoln's-Inn 

William Warwick, Esq. Warwick-House, Herts. 

Rev. Thomas Watkins, Pennoyre-House, Breconshire 

Mrs.T. Watkins, Ditto 

Edward Watkins, Esq. Alveston, 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Watkins, Corpus Christi College 

Mr. Watkins, Oriel College, Oxford 

i). P. Watts, Esq. Gower-Street 2 Sets 

GeorgeWatson, Esq. Deputy Teller of the Exchequer 2 Sets 

John Watson, Esq. Preston 2 Sets 

John Watson, Jun. Esq. Ditto 

Rev. James Way, Powick, near Worcester 

Mr. Webbe, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

The late Samuel Wegge, Esq. 2 Sets 

Rev. Mr. Weldale, Brazen-Nose College, Oxford 

Rev. Thomas Wellings 

Richard Wellington, Esq. of the Hay, Breconshire 

Richard S. Wells, Esq. Ely-Place 

Edward West, Esq. Weymouth-Street 

Mrs. H. West 

Rev. Richard Wetherell, Westbury, Gloucestershire 2 Sets 

Joseph Whatley, Esq. Bristol 

Mr. Wheeler, Oriel College, Oxford 

Rev. Joseph Whitchurch, Redcliff-Street, Bristol 

Charles N. White^ Esq. Portland-Place 



)u5)smtiet0» 



ixxi 



2 Sets 



2 Sets 



Sets. 
Sets 



Rev. Mr. Whitear^ Hastings 

Rev. Christopher Whitehead 

Rev. Walter Whiter, &c. &c. &c. Cambridge 

Rev. Dr. Whitfield, Rector of St. Margaret's^ 
Lothbury 

Rev. Dr. Whitmore, Lawford, Essex 

John Whitmore, Esq. M. P. Old Jewry 

Mr, Whittingham, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

G. D. Whittington, Esq. St. John's College, Cambridge 

William Whitworth, Esq. Cornhill 

Rev. J. W. Wickes, Caplain to his Royal Highness 

the Duke of Cumberland 2 

William Wilberforce, Esq. M. P. 4 

Rev. Dr. Wilgres, Eltham 

Rev. John T. Wilgres, A. M. Trinity College, 

Cambridge 
Walter Wilkins, Esq. M. P. Maesllwch, Radnorshire 2 Sets 
Walter Wilkins, Jun. Esq. Ditto 
Thomas Wilkins, Esq. Brecon 
Jeffery Wilkins, Esq. Ditto 
William Wilkins, Esq. Ditto 

Rev. John Wilkins, Rector of Desserth, Radnorshire 
Sir Edward Williams, Bart. Clifton 2 Sets 

Rev. David Williams^ Brecon 
Rev. John Williams, Ditto 
Rev. George Williams, Rector of Martin^ near 

Worcester 
Henry Williams, Esq. Llangattock-Place,Breconshire 
R. R. Williams, Esq. 2 Sets 

Rev. George Williams, Limehouse, Middlesex 
Rev. Edward Williams, Stepney 
Mr. Williams, Trinity College, Oxford 
William Williams, Esq. Brecon 
William Williams, Jun. Esq. Ditto 



John Williams, Esq, Coroner and Surgeon, Brecon 

Mr. Williams, Corpus Christi College, Oxford 

Rev. Mr. Williams, Abergavenny 

John Williams, Esq. Covvbridge, Glamorganshire 

Mr* Williams, Oriel College, Oxford 

Mr. Williams, Bookseller, Strand 6 Sett 

Rev. Evan Williams, Clipstone, Northamptonshire 2 Sets 

Rev. Joseph Williams, Wickwar, Gloucestershire 

William Williams, Esq. Aberpergwm, Glamorganshire 

Rev. Edwai'd Williams, Rector of Uffington, See. 

Shropshire 
David Williams, Esq. Q, Sets 

David Williams, Esq. Brompton-Row 
Thomas Williams, Esq. Brecon 

The late Bloom Williams, Esq. Cardiff ^ 2 Set» 

Thomas Williams, Esq. Cowbridge 2 Sets^ 

Robert Williams, Esq. Town-Clerk, Brecon 
Miss Willis 2 Sets 

John Wilmore, Esq. Worcester 
Edward Wilmot, Esq. Lansdowne-GroveyBath 
Mr. Wilson, Lincoln 
Edward L. Wilson, Esq. 
Philip Wilson, M. D- Worcester 

Richard Wilson, Esq. &c. &c. Lincoln's-Inn-Fields 2 Set* 
Mr. John Wilton, Hazle, Olveston 

Joseph Windham, Esq. F. S. A. See. Portland-Place 2 Sels 
Sir Edward Winnington, Bart. Stanford,Worcester* 

shire 
Colonel Wood, of the East Middlesex Militia 
Colonel Wood, late of Hereford 
William G. Wood, Esq. Devizes 
John Wood, Jun. Esq. Cardiff 

Colonel and Mrs. Woodburne 4 Set* 

Richard Wooddeson, Esq. Chancery-Lane, Barrister- 

at Law 2 Sets 



C, R.Woodward, Esq. Tetbury, Gloucestershire 
Rev. Mr. Woolcombe^ Fellow of Oriel College_,Oxford 
LadyWrey, Bath 2 Sets 

Sir James Wright, Bart. Little Ealing 2 Sets 

Rev. Ihomas Wright, A. M. Rector of Whitechapel 
Rev. T. Wright, F. S, A. 

Mr. William Wright, Park-Row 2 Sets 

Robert Wrixon, Esq. Tentham-Down, Glamorgan- 
shire ' 2 Sets 
Mrs. Wroughton, Bedford-Street, Bedford-Square 
George Wyatt, Esq. New Bridge-Street, Blackfriars 
Thomas Wyndham, Esq. M. P. Dunravon-Castle, 

Glamorganshire 2 Sets 

Sir William Wynne 2 Sets 

Robert Wynne, Esq. Garthowen, Denbighshire 
Mr. Wynniott, Trinity College, Oxford 
William Wynter, Esq. Brecon 
Rev. Robert Wynter, Rector of Penderin, Breconshife 

Rev. Dr. Yate, Bromsberrow, Gloucestershire 

Rev. Mr. Yates, &c. Chaplain of Chelsea College. 

Rev. John Yeatman, East-Brent 

Philip Yorke, Esq. Erthig, Denbighshire 

Mrs. Yorke, Ditto 

Captain Young, Worcester Militia 

Mr. William Young, Surgeon, ShifFnal, Shropshire 

Added since the foregoing was put to Pres:^, 
Sir James Duberly 



^■"■■""■— -^ 



SKETCHES, 



THE STATE AISI D JTTJ INMENTS 



^rimitibe g^octet?. 



L 



Th^ importance of distinctly marking fundamental 
principles. 



w, 



HEN I entered upon a serious inquiry into some 
paiticulars respecting the original, and primitive inhabitants 
of these countries, I found my thoughts necessarily carried 
back towards their original state as a people, and conse- 
quently, towards the general attainments of human society, 
when mankind beoan to be formed into distinct nations. 
It became desirable, to distinguish those customs, arts, and 
stores of knowledge which the Celtcz probably imported into 
their Western settlements, from those, which they must 
have acquired afterwards, by their own diligence, or by their 
intercourse with strangers. I could not proceed with satis- 
faction., till my thoughts attained a certain degree of pre- 

A 



2 



cision as to these points. This appeared an essential ground- 
work of local inquiry: It may indeed be affirmed,, that for 
the discussion of any difficult subject^ certain bearings^ and 
relative distances^ to wliich the argument may be directed, 
and from whicli a chain of inferences maybe drawn, should 
be distinctly marked. For want of such leading objects, it 
has frequently happened, that propositions have been as- 
serted upon one set of principles, and have been denied upon 
another; — so that historical truth has been left, after an 
elaborate discussion, enveloped in tenfold obscurity, or 
buried under amass of contending elements. 

It is true, that all deductions of argument are sometimes 
regarded, as more, or less conclusive, in proportion to their 
harmony, or disagreement, with some preconceived opinion. 
It cannot therefore be expected, that general assent must be 
the consequence of unfolding first principles ; but at least, 
by this means a charge of inconsistency may be avoided. 
That charge, I hope to obviate, by presenting a few sketches 
of my conceptions, relative to the attainments of primitive 
society, and by offering a few plain arguments in support of 
my opinion. In order to form this opinion, it was necessary 
to enter into periods, far bej^ond the reach of profane histor5\ 
The first point, that was to be settled, was the choice of th^ 
most faithful guides^ through such remote regions. 

Thej^oe^s, and mythological writers, o( Greece jand Rome, 
have transmitted some interesting tales, respecting the most 
early times : but these, are delivered in language highly 
figurative, and are mixed with so much allegory, or fable, 
that it seems hardly possible, to reduce them into fact. 
Hetice the most learned, and sincere investigators of an- 
tiquity, are far from being agreed in their interpretation of 
poetical traditions. And this is not to be wondered at ; 



for so hidden Was the subject^ even to the generality of the 
Greeks themselves, that we find those authors, who made it 
their business to elucidate mythological narration, two thou- 
sand years ago, perpetually amusing us with puerile con- 
ceits, or shifting the solution with a commodious plea of 
sacred mysteries. 

This darkness, and the uitcertainty of poe^icaZ reports, the 
€>nly ancient histories, which the Gree/i:5, and JJomows pos- 
sessed, induced ^eiv philosophers to reject it altogether, and 
frame new theories of their own, upon the original state of 
mankind. 

Amongst all the ancient professors of oracular wisdom, 
none carried their specuhuions upon this topic, so far, as that 
gect, which denied the operation of the first intelligent cause^. 
and the superintending energies of a Divine Providence, — 
ascribed the formation of all things to a fortuitous concourse of 
atoms, and consigned the government of the world into the 
hands of chance. The most connected of the details, which 
give us the opinions of the EpicureaiiSy. is contained in the 
learned, but most unphilosophical poem of jLwcre^?*M5. From^ 
this, we may gather, that in that peculiar sect were men 
of genius, and, could we but grant their fundamental prin- 
ciples, men of acute reasoning. 

. According to their hypothesis, the first men, that were 
produced, were fit inhabitants of the world that existed only 
by accident. And they were above resting tlieir specula- 
tions upon imagination alone: it was their ambition, ta 
support them by data, when they could reach them, and 
such, as could best accommodate their atheistical pre- 
conceptions^ 

AS 



4 



Tlie condition of a few ancient hunters, who, as is usual in 
tW newl}^ inhabited countries, wandered amongst the woods, 
and were driven occasionally to extreme difficulties in pro- 
curing food, and lodging, was brought forwards, and was. 
obtruded, as the general picture of original society.. 

They had observed, that in general, wherever th(^ arts, 
and sciences had flourished, they had, for some ages, been 
slowly,. and uniformly, accumulating their acquisitions ; from 
which they inferred, that their progress had observed the 
same line of march universally. They could not ascertain 
the time, nor the manner^ in which man had begun hi* 
existence. 

They were supplied with no authentic history of his pri- 
mitive condition, and therefore, as their own scanty line of 
research carxied them back far beyond the invention of many 
arts in the pale of their own district, into an age compara- 
tively barbarous, they concluded themselves warranted in 
imagining a period of indefinite extent, before the invention 
of an}^ arts whatsoever, before human reason had made 
her successful exertions, and even before her light had 
begun its dawn in the mind of man. 

During this imaginary period, the race of mortals were 
described, as making slow, and painful progress, towards the 
verge of humanity ; as having, for a long series of ages> 
crept, and felt their way, through various degrees of savage 
life^ before they emerged into a superior condition. 

Such was the hypothesis, opposed by these philosaphers, to 
the few rays of early light, preserved by xhepott, and recog- 
nized by the more temperate reason of other philosophers, 
who represented man, as originally distinguished froin 



other terrestrial animals, by his erect countenance, and his 
capacity for sublime contemplation— as formed of two dis- 
tinct parts, a governing, as well as immortal spirit, related, 
ijhough inferior, to the Divine Creator, — and a passive body, 
which degraded him to the nature of brutes. 

But the hypothesis of the philosophers , obtained great 
popularity. It was not only received, as founded upon, 
truth, during the most illustrious ages of Greek, and Roman 
learning, but it has also been adopted, and refined upon, by 
eminent writers of modern times. We have consequently 
been amused with strange, and monstrous tales of that mute, 
as well as ill-contrived quadruped, Man, — a being, who, 
for a series of ages, crawled upon the earth, before he began, 
occasionally, to assume an erect posture, and walk upon his 
hinder feet ; who afterwards made slow progress through 
the monkey, and the savage, accidentallj/ acquired speech 
and reason ; till at length, forming himself into a kind of 
terrestrial God, he established a dominion over his brethrea 
of the forest. 

In this country, there are perhaps few men who would 
not refuse to admit these notions in their full extent; yet 
I believe, there are multitudes, whose imaginations are in- 
fluenced by them, in a certain degree. When they describe 
an original state of nature, an early age, or the first in- 
habitants of a country, they represent a condition of the 
most wretched barbarism. 

If, therefore, elaborate theory, or popular opinion^ were to 
be received, as unerring guides, the points, now under con- 
sideration, or the original state of society, and the condition 
of those, who first inhabited the West of Europe, might 
isoon be disposed of, by a few quotations fromLucretius, and 



6 



Horace, a few scraps from the ancient Historians^ Phi- 
losophers and Geographers, or from their disciples in 
modern days. 

But the connection of this hypothesis, in its mature state,, 
with such atheistical, and most absurd principles, renders it, 
in all parts, highly suspicious. Recollecting the purposes- 
for which it was framed, we should be guilty of an unpar- 
donable negligence, to embrace it, without a jealous exa- 
mination. And it will not bear such a test. It is not only 
injurious to the honour of our nature, but is contradictory 
to the venerable remains of the ancient world, and the 
testimony of all our senses. 

Besides, we ought undoubtedly, in this point, as in every 
other, carefully to estimate all the facts, before we adopt 
any theories whatsoever. If authentic information can 
be obtained, it claims preference to the most flattering 
hypothesis, and the most acute inferences of abstract rea- 
soning. Where this rule is not observed, no wise man can 
acquiesce in opinions, merely because they have been popu- 
lar, and because they have been supported by favourite 
names, or by ingenious arguments. 

The original state of mankind, in the earliest ages, is 
avowedly one of those topics, upon which we have an oppor- 
tunity of examining well authenticated facts. 

By all those, who profess our Christian religion, it will 
readily be conceded, that, in one ancient volume, we are 
furnished with a correct epitome of the most ancient periods ; 
and the generality evCn of those philosophers who reject the 
writings of Moses, and thfe other books of the Old Testament^ 



as matter of religious faith^ are yet candid enough to ^dmit^ 
that they contain the best, and most authentic accounts of 
the first ages. The notices they give us of those ages, though 
few, and short, are the most clear, | and comprehensive that 
can be imagined. In the following sheets I shall regard these 
venerable documents, in the light of authentic histories. My 
inferences, being founded upon books which are universally 
read, and which, for many centuries, have employed the 
united learning, and critical sagacity of the Christian 
world, may not offer much that is absolutely new; yet may 
be of some use, in directing the attention of my readers to 
those truths, which they pr,o/^ss tobeli^pf. 



II. 



Ceneralvkw ofthejirst ages — primitive knowledge preserved, 
ayid communicated by Noah, ayid his sons^ 

An the book of Genesis, we have a consistent, and clear, 
though brief account, of mankind, in their primitive state, — 
of their disposition to acquire knowledge during the first ages, 
— and of their success in the pursuit. We are there informed, 
that the first man whom God created upon the earth, was 
far advanced above the condition of a dumb, and brutal 
savage ; — -that he was not formed by his nature, to associate 
with inferior creatures, but for dominion overthem: — that nd 
sooner did he come out of his Maker's hand, than he began 
to exercise his distinguishing endowment ©f reason, and ac- 



8 



quired the faculty of speech, as a medium for tlic expressi(ja 
of his perceptions^ and ideas ; — that in the period of his inno- 
cence^ and after his transgression^ he employed his rational 
powers in the dihgent prosecution of arts, which have, in 
all ages, heen peculiar to civilized, and social life. 

The solitary savage, knows hot what is meant, by dressing 
a garden, and keeping it ; the habit, and the talent, of tilling 
the ground, and eating bread by the sweat of his brow, are 
things, of which he is neither skilled, nor stiidio2is. 

Of Adam's two elder sons, we find, that one was a tillet 
of ground^ tlie other a keeper of sheep; — and this, before the 
birth of Seth, or about a century after the human creation* 
This deserves notice. It proves, not only, that in this early 
age, men understood the comforts of life derived both from 
agriculture, and pasturage, calculating, how to enjoy the 
advantages arising from both ; but that also they pursued 
these advantages upon the most improved plan of civil so- 
ciety. They divided amongst individuals those cares, and 
occupations, that were conducive to the mutual benefit of all. 
Their attention was never distracted by a multitude of objects 5 
but was directed skilfully to one. The shepherd in that age 
did not overlook the necessary care of his flock, in his cul- 
tivation of the field ; nor the husbandman lose the season 
of tillage, when he guarded his flocks. This, demonstrates 
a vigorous eflfort of tlie reasoning powers, and the most 
luminous acquisitions of useful experience. 

Again : Cain brought to the Lord an oftering of the 

fruit of the ground, and Jbel, of the firstlings ofhisfock. 

Here was no community of rights — no promiscuous plunder. 

Every man claimed, and was allowed, his property in that, 

which he had procured by his individual care, or labour; ancl 



9 

he had a nglit to dispose of it^, within the regulations of 
societ^\ 

The epitome of primitive history, in the fourth chapter of 
Genesis, informs us of several eminent men amongst the 
descendants of Adam, down to the flood, who discovered 
and improved upon the first principles of such arts and 
sciences as are conducive to the comfort and ornament of 
society. ^Nor was this all that they did. The antediluvian 
ages were evidently ages o^ application as vrell as of genius. 
Men did not accidentally strike upon some solitary discoveiy, 
and content themselves with the fame they acquhed in the 
completion of it. They applied the principles of the art al- 
ready known, as a clue for the discovery of other arts_, with 
which it had a natural connection. 

Thus, the first inventor of stringed instruments kept sight 
of the general principles of music, and the scale of haimo- 
nious sounds, till, by analogy, he had found out the nature 
of wind-instruments : and, by repeated efforts of genius, he 
became the father of all such as handle the Harp ajtd the 
Organ. 

The first artificer in brass pursued the same course, till he 
had likewise developed tlie nature and proper management 
of iron ore. 

If we refledt that these men retained the visrorous use of 
their faculties for a space of six or seven centuries, to re- 
peat their experiments, and to make continual improvement 
upon the useful hints which presented themselves, I think we 
may conclude that they carried their inventions to a high 
degree of perfection. And it was perhaps the wise design of 
Providence to afford an opportunity for such improvements. 



10 

^tiring the primitive ages^ by extending the period of human 
hie to nearly a tiioiisand years. At present^ our days are only 
comniensurate with the ends of hving : may we npt believe that 
this was the case from the beginning? 

Moses directly records only the inventions of one family, 
the house of Cain. But Adam had sons and daughters whose 
names and history are not preseiTed. Let us form a conception 
of tlie longer catalogue which has been omitted by tJie sacred 
penman — the inventions of all these families^, and add them 
to the present record^ and it will be evident that^ the state of 
nature^ or the original state of man^ was not that of brutes and 
savages_^ but a state of immediate mental exertion^ arid of 
rapid progress in civilization, and the acquisition of useful arts, 
— a pi6lure which true philosophy might have presented of 
rational beings, as formed and disposed by the hand of a 
good and wise Creator. 

If we carry our attention forward to the generation which 
immediately succeeded the flood, we shall discover no /estiges 
of a savage state. Human society was now, for a second time, 
confined within narrow limits, and the abilities of each indi-r 
\idual were necessarily called forth, to secure general comfort* 
If this age did not display so much inventive genius as those 
which had preceded, yet its comparative advantages were far 
superior to those which had been enjoyed by the iirst race of 
mortals.. The mental powers of the species could ngt now be 
regarded as unexperienced, 

Keason had now the accumulated stock of }650 years, ready 
to be employed. For it is evident that Noah and his sons 
preserved, not only the general history of the primitive world, 
but as much of its acquu'ed knowledge as could be useful to 
themselves and their posterity. This they had ample opportii'* 



11 



7Uti) of doing; for the floods in regard to Noab^^vas \\o sudden 
and unforeseen event. And it teas done ; for Moses records 
the antediluvian inventors of many arts whicli had been 
preserved to his own time. 

The book of Job dehneates an age long prior to that of 
Moses, And it must be recollected that the piclure is not 
taken at the time of JoFs death, but of his affliction, an event 
"^vhich appears to m.e to have certainly happened many yeai-s 
before the death of Shem, of Heber, and of many patriarclis 
born in the first postdiluvian century. Upon the contra6tecl 
scale of human life, such as it was become in the days of Job, 
Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite were *'' very old 
and grey-headed men-" yet we find them familiarly and 
confidently appealing to the living testimony of a former age 
—to the words which would be uttered by the men of this age^ 
by which they could mean bo othej* than these patriarchs. 

The intedocutors, in this most ancient book, either expressly 
Mention or clearly allude to every science and every laudable 
art which has usually been placed to the account of the 
Babylonians, Egyptians, Phoenicians <jr Indians. And it is 
remarkable that Job and his friends ascribe their whole stock 
of knowledge, w'hether of religion and morality, of the works 
of nature, or of civil arts — not to the exertion of their own 
genius, or to the succesful inquiry of any particular society, 
which had recently emerged from barbarism ; but purely to 
the tradition of the patriarchs of the first age after the flood. 

^* For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age ; and prepare 
thyself for the search of ^^e/r fathers (For we are but ofyesterdaif, 
*md know nothing, seeing our days on earth are as a shudon)) 
[as nothing wdien compared to their years] shall they not teach 
thee and tell thee, and utter zvords out of their heart T — -^ 
Chap, viii, 



n 

*^ I will shew thee^ hear me, and that >vhich I have seen 
will I declare;, which wise men have told from their fathers (^nd 

Iiave not hid it) itntQ whom alone the earth was given,'' ^ — 

Chap. XV. 

From these and similar passages, we must infer, that a 
general stock of knowledge had been treasured up by the great 
patriarchs, for the benefit of their posterity; and that good 
men amongst the descendants of Noah, for several generations, 
regarded it as their greatest wisdom to learn and attend tq 
i^eae traditions of their fathers^^ who lived many days upoii 
the earthy 

We also learn that the rapid abridgment of the period of 
human life, which was not only recent but progressive in the 
time of Job, had struck the race of mortals with a consterna- 
tion which, for a while, checked the ardour of original inves- 
tigation, and damped the confidence of genius. The life of 
man still comprehended a space of, at le^st, two centuries ; 
yet men regarded themselves, when compared with the formev 
age, but of yesterday. They could not extend the limits of 
knowledge, because their days oi^l earth were as a shadow. — 
All they could pretend to was, to preserve those inestimable 
treasures which they had derived from happier times. 



13 



IIL 

Detail of 'primitive traditions — Religion and morality — Crdl 

arts, and sciences Agriculture, architeRnre, metuUurg^^ 

natiiral historij, computation of' time, astronomy/, geographf. 

At may not be impmper in this place to touch briefly upo^i 
some particulars of this valuable patrimony of the early ages. 

Of the state of religion and moral philosophy in the primi- 
tive worlds we have no detailed information » Yet several ^'elJ 
important circumstances may be collected from tlie books 
cited above^ the latter of which I particularize on this occasion^ 
because the notices contained in it are wholly independent of 
the Mosait? legation. These circumstances will, in a great 
measure, -elucidate the notions entertained by mankind, as to 
these points, before the promulgation of the Jewish law. 

It appears that at a very early period, the Divine will and 
purposes, and some of the essential tmths of religion, were 
revealed to mankind in a more full and complete manner than 
they are expressly recorded to have been. In the old testament 
we have allusions to tlie immortality of the soul, the resurre<ftioa 
and the future judgment. No direct revelation of these things 
is given by Moses, or in the writings of the prophets contained 
in that volume. They are spoken of rather as truths already 
known and admitted, upon the authority of a prior revelation. 

An obscure tradition of them was preserved both by the 
Jews and Gentiles^ as may. still be ascertained from the theola- 



14 

gica! systems of many nations; but such a clear manifestation 
of tliem as might fully serve to animate hope, and enforce the 
pracHce of virtue^, was reserved for HIM who abolished death 
and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, 
and whose coming all the kindreds of the earth expected. 

Some communications upon these subje6ls must have been 
given to the primitive ages, together with the promise of a 
Redeemer. There were prophets and holy men long before 
the flood. God spake to our first parents. Enoch walked witli 
Ood, or conduced himself agreeably to some known. Divine 
law: And in the time of Enos, men began to invoke the 
sacred name. Of the nature and attributes of the Divine Beings 
the primitive world seem not to have possessed just and fixed 
conceptions. We are told that our first parents heard the 
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool of 
the day — fhat it repented the Lord thai he had made man 
upon the earth, and it grieved him at his heart — ^That God 
looked XLipoiii the earth, and behold it was ! corrupt — ^^ And the 
Lord said. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
because their sin is very grievous, I wdll go down now and set 
whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, 
which is come unto me, and if not, I ziill know,'" 

This is speaking the lang-uage of men; but it is a language 
highly illustrative of the opinions and conceptions of the early 
ages: and it affords a proof, that in all ages the Almighty 
revealed himself in a manner which might be level to the 
capacities and comprehensions of men. A more spiritual and 
adequate ]revelation of his nature might, at this period, have 
been totally unintelligible, and consequently useless. Men 
could not conceive of the Almighty as being every where 
present, at the same instant, but as having the power to remove 
himself whither he pleased ^not as knowing all things 



15 



tliroughout tlie immensity of space, but as capable o( in- 
forming himself — not as executing his Divine will, by tlie 
immediate exertion of his own power, but as employing the 
ministration of other spiritual beings whom they indilierentiy 
styled Angeli and Gods, 

Yet strictly speaking, mankind, in the primitive agc-s^ 
appear not to have been pobvtheists. They regarded One 
Being as supreme over all the world of spirits, acknowledging 
at the same time that there were other spirits, endowed with 
many of his attributes, though under his controul, and em- 
ployed i\\ the execution of his commands. But in their forms 
of expression, at least, they were seldom careful to disciimi- 
nate betv.een the One, Eternal, Uuiveisal Spirit and his 
created ministers. 

This vague manner of speaking gradually led to gi'cat abuses 
in the Gentile world ; yet, occasional!}-, we find the nations 
acknowledging one supreme God, whose unity they per- 
ceived, under a great variety of symbols and allegorical 
characlers, 

!Men appear to have been early informed as to the difference 
of good and evil, and all the great points of the moral law. — 
God said to Cain, "^ If thou doest Avell, shalt thou not be 
accepted?" where the form of expression clearly intimates that 
Cain was previously acquainted with the rule and its san<5tion. 
The atrociousness of murder was understood amongst the 
descendants of Cain to the fifth generation, and the sentence 
pronounced upon him was not forgotten, as appears by 
Lamech's apology. By the express command of the Deity, 
murder was rendered a capital crime in the time of Noah. — 
The patriarchs, who were the priests as well as the supreme 
judges of their families, recpred the blood of the offenders, as 



16 



forfeited by a Divine law. Hence, perhaps, originated the 
Gentile custom of sacrificing malefactors, and by a dreadful 
abuse, the abomination of offering the innocent. Decenc}^ of 
deportment, and the respe6l due to parents, were duties so 
sacred in the family of Noah, that we find the violation of them 
punished by the most solemn malediction. 

The general inve6lives pronounced against the wickedness 
and violence of the old world, sufficiently declare, that their 
praClices were transgressions of some known law, and the 
nature of the charges alledged against them clearly intimates 
that this must have been the eternal and moral law. 

The primitive world had also several positive institutions, 
€onne6led with religion and morality, which were afterwards 
revived and enforced by the law of Moses. The Sabbath, as 
appears from the history of the creation, was sanctified from 
the beginning. And though we discover no plain traces of its 
strict observance, before the reinforcement of the precept in 
the wilderness, yet we may coUeCl from Noah's dividing of 
time into portions of seven days (Gen. viii. 10, 12) from the 
prevalence of the same custom amongst all nations, and from 
Laban's request (Gen. xxix. 27) " Fulfil her week", that the 
primitive world were acquainted with the reason of such a 
division. 

Marriage was instituted between our first parents : from 
that time it was esteemed sacred, and the abuse of it is re- 
corded with censure. Gen. vi. 2, 3. 

Sacrifices were appointed under some of the same forms 
which were prescribed by the Levitical law; and animals 
were discriminated into clean and unclean. Abel oflfered the 
firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof: Noah buildid an. 



17 

altar unto the Lord^ and took of everi/ clean beast, and of 
every cltanfowl and offered burnt offerings upon the altar. 

Even the consecration of tithes did not originate in the 
Levitical law. Melchisedec,, as priest of die most high God, 
received from Abraham tithes of all. Jacob vows unto the 
Lord ^^ Of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the 
Unth unto thee." Not that the tenth had not been previously 
devoted to the God w^hom men worshipped ; but because he 
now resolved that the J^ord should be his God. Gen. xiv. 20. 
xxviii. 21, 22. 

This appears then, to have been a primitive and universal 
institution, and as such, it will best explain the charge al- 
ledged against Cain oinot rightly dividing, as it is rendered 
by the Seventy. 

Thus we find many of the moral and ritual precepts of the 
law of Moses are only renewals of a primitive and universal 
law, which had been in force, amongst the descendants of 
Noah, at the time of the general allotment. 

Traces of such a law, and of such institutions have been 
remarked amongst several nations, long secluded from each 
other, and widely dispersed over the face of the earth — on 
the borders of Siberia, in China, Japan, Africa, Mexico, and 
the Islands of the Pacific ocean. 

Such vestiges have led pious travellers to a conclusion, that 
these several people must have had some unknown connexion 
with the Jewish nation ; and unbelieving philosophers deduce 
from them a notion still more improbable — that similar follies 
have been the spontaneous growth of various soils. Wherea*' 
in facft, such resemblances are, for tlie most part, only the 



18 



remains of what was once common to die whole hmnan race. 
They are part of the stores of the antediluvian world trans- 
mitted by the patriarchs to their posterity. 

Of the civil arts^ and the sciences of the primitive world 
which were thus preserved and transmitted, I shall offer 
some slight extra6ls — the list may be abundantl}^ enlarged 
by diligent research. 

1 . Agriculture and pasturage are recorded as occupations of 
the very first age : and these were, in a remarkable degree^ 
the employments of Noah, Abraham, Job, and the other 
patriarchs in the ages which succeeded the flood. The im- 
mediate descendants of Noah^ as well as of Cain, dwelt in 
tents and possessed cattle. 

Q. The firstborn of human parents was also the first builder 
of a city; and the history of Babel affords a proof that the 
art of building w^as not forgotten. Noah must have been 
eminently skilled in this art, as well as in a multitude of 
others, which are necessarily subservient to it. The great 
patriarch received only a few general instru6lions as to the 
form and dimensions of the ark. From these he \\ as enabled 
to constru6l that enormous fabric, with such firmness and 
compactness as to resist the waters of a deluge which over^ 
whelmed the world. We have no authority to assert that 
the art of naval architedure was new, but whatever progress 
may have been made in it, this design was vast : it far ex- 
ceeded any thing that has been undertaken in the docks 
of modern Europe. It must therefore have called in a num- 
ber of useful arts which are not expressly recorded, but which 
were undoubtedly handed down to the next generation. 

3. Some of the descendants of Cain, as I have already 



19 

remarked, invented metallurgy, and instructed artificers in 
Brass and Iron ; whilst others were cultivating the fine arts, 
and teaching men to handle the harp and the organ, both 
string and wind instraments. These arts were so far from 
being lost, that in the oldest pi6ture of society after the 
deluge, we meet with ^^ Bows of steel, and molten Mirrors," 
things which could never iiave existed, or have been rendered 
fit for use, without considerable skill in the tempering, com- 
pounding and polishing of metals. la the same book also, 
the harp and the organ, the identical kinds of instruments 
taught by Jubal, are repeatedly mentioned. Hence it appears 
tliat not only such arts as were indispensably necessary, but 
even the ornamental arts of the antediluvians, were carefully 
preserved. 

4. It has been noted that Noah was acquainted with the 
distindlion of animals into clean and unclean. And this 
distindlion was known before the flood ; for it was the general 
rule by which he was to determine the number of each species 
to be admitted into the ark. Of every clean beast, and of 
every clean fowl, he took unto him by sevens, or seven paijs 
of each sort ; and of the unclean, by single pairs. It is clear 
then that the primitive ages had made some progress in the 
study of natural history : they had had their Linnei and their 
Buffons ; for when an observance of the same distin6lion of 
clean and unclean animals is enjoined to the Israelites 
(Lev. xi) we find that it required and depended upon an ac- 
curate classification of the genera, agreeably to their several 
natural marks or chara6lers. Thus quadmpeds were classed 
into 1. Those which were clovenfooted and chewed the cud. 

2. Those which were clovenfooted and chewed not the cud. 

3. Those which chewed the cud and were not clovenfooted. 

4. Those which neither chewed the cud nor were cloven- 
footed. In like manner aquatic animals were distinguished 

B 2 



20 



into 1. Such as had fins and scales. 2. Such as had fins 
and lio scales. 3. Such as had scales and no fins. 4. Such 
as had neither fins nor scales. 

This classification may indeed appear rude and simple, 
when compared with the present s^^stems ; but all I contend 
for is, that the primitive world had discovered the rudiments or 
first principles of the sciences, so far as to open the way for 
gradual improvement and more minute investigation, and that 
these rudiments were preserved by the family of Noah. Be- 
sides, as the preceding chara6leristics regarded only the ritual 
distinction of animals into clean and unclean, we are not, 
from hence, warranted to conclude, that a more elaborate 
discrimination of the genera and classes was unknown to the 
early ages. In the book of Job, we have observations upon 
the charaders, dispositions and habits of several animals, 
such as the wild goat, the hind, the wild ass, the unicorn, 
the peacock, the stork, the ostrich, the horse, the hawk, the 
eagle, &c. and these observations are closely connedled and 
intimately blended witVi those rehgious and moral sentiments 
which had constituted the wisdom of the former age. They 
ttiust have descended together. And this may induce a belief 
that the study of nature had, in a peculiar degree, attiaded 
the attention of the early generations. These studies must 
have embraced the vegetable as well as the animal kingdom. 
Our first parents remarked those trees which were pleasant to 
the sight, and those which were good for food. The first 
husbandmen must have regarded the difference between the 
useful plants upon which they bestowed their labour, and the 
noxious ones which required to be eradicated. Their whole 
skill in these matters must have arisen from a<5lual obser- 
vation : there was no established praClice to which they could 
refer. As Adam eat bread in the sweat of his brow, he must 
have studied the nature and proper cultiue of grain. And it 



21 



13 probable that/ not only the procuring of breads but the 
planting of vineyards, and the preparation of fermented Hquor 
were known long before the flood. At least_, we find them 
pra61;ised soon afterwards, while Noah and his three sons as yet 
constituted but one family and dwelt in the same tent : and 
the planting of a vineyard by the great patriarch is simply 
recorded, as a thing which belonged of couise to the occu^ 
pation of a husbandman, 

5. The astronomical knowledge of the primitive ages and 
their computation of time have afforded matter for much 
debate. Some learned men are of opinion, that the annual 
period of the earth's revolution and the succession of the 
seasons experienced a great change at the time of the deluge. 
There are those who produce authorities to prove that the 
ancients calculated only by lunar months, while others con- 
tend that their years consisted of 360 days and no more. 

May I offer a few slight and general hints upon these sub- 
je<5ls ? They are not the stri6lures of a man of science ; but 
such as they are, with undissembled diffidence they are 
addressed to the candid critic. 

The occupations of the antediluvians, their diligence in 
the pursuit of knowledge and their peculiar opportunities for 
repeated observation, forbid me to suppose that they could 
have been ignorant of the stated return of the seasons, and 
of the true annual period, whatever it was in their time, 

It seems to me that an addition of 5 days and 6 hours, to 
the former period of the earth's annual revolution, would have 
introduced great confusion into the whole solar system ; I 
therefore conclude that this period has remained the same 
from the creation. The promise made to Noali <^ I will ii«>t 

B 3 



22 



again curse the ground aTny more for man's sake ^AA^hile 

tlie earth remaineth^ seedtime and harvest, and cold and 
Jieatj, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not 
cease,''' seems rather to imply the uninteri-upted continuance 
of an order of things already known, than the conmience^ 
ment of a new and different order. 

Supposing that the course of nature was changed at the 
deluge, it must be obvious that neither lunar months nor the 
year of 360 days could have been adequate to the purposes 
of agriculture or of pasturage. They would by no means cor- 
respond with the stated returns of the seasons. They could 
not have been retained for half a century, without producing 
the greatest inconvenience, changing summer into winter, 
and suggesting the necessity of reformation, to a society in- 
finitely more rude than the family of Noah. How are we then 
to account for the lunar months and the year of 360 days which 
occur in ancient authors ? 

Some societies may have gradually sunk into such a state 
of rudeness, as to have little occasion for marking with pre- 
cision the length of the year, they may therefore have 
neglected and forgotten the science of their ancestors. But 
in many cases, it is probable that the scantiness or imper- 
fe6lion of ancient documents may have betrayed us into 
some error upon this subje6l. A vague and familiar mode of 
expression, in wlrich many people indulged th^emselves, may 
have occasioned a similar detect in those early authors we 
consult. 

Thus, for instance, we call four weeks a month and a year 
a twelvemonth. A month with us is a very vague term. It 
implies 4 weeks, a lunation, the ninth part of the time of 
gestation, a calendar month of various lengtlis, &c. Sic. Wc 



23 



also compute the annual return of certain festivals^ by tlie 
age of a certain moon. All this produces no error nor con« 
fusion. But had such a seeming confusion, amongst any 
ancient people, fallen in the way of the Greek writers, what 
euibarrassment would their slight and superficial accounts 
have occasioned to modern chronologers ? 

The vanity of several nations led them to ascribe to their 
own ancestors many of those inventions, and improvements 
in science, w^hich were due to the primitive ages, and there- 
fore, to speak of 2^ former state of rudeness, which in fadl^ 
had never existed amongst them as distincl; people. 

The early ages in general must have been acquainted with 
the solar period, which alone could be of use in the compu- 
tation of years. For while we deny them this knowledge, it 
is yet granted that they had the use of cycles, by which their 
defe6tive years -were adjusted to the course of nature. If 
they knew the sum of 19, 30 or 60 years, could they have 
been ignorant of the extent of one ? That their years were 
60 adjusted is evident; for we find the same months con- 
stantly fall about the same season. Hesiod's description 
MiTva 5's r^nvaiuvxy See, Epy. ?. 322, can be applied only to the 
depth of winter, and therefore can have belonged only to 
years which, taken together, amounted to solar years. The 
Abib of Moses, or Month of Green Com, as the name im- 
plies, must have constantly returned after the vernal equinox, 
from the first time it received the name. And this name 
could not have been new. It was not Egyptian, but either 
Hebrew or Chaldaic ; the Israelites had therefore brought it 
with them into Egypt. It had been known in the time of 
Abraham. For on the 14th of this month the children of 
Israel came out of Egypt, and, 0:1 the selfsame dai/, 430 years 
before, their great ancestor^ Abraham had begun his pore- 



24 



grination. The length of the solar year had then heeii 
knovvii from the days of Shem^ who survived the commence- 
ment of Abraham's sojom'ning about 75 years. Had this year 
been unknown; had the Epagones, or even the Bissextile 
been omitted, the month of Green Corn must, during that 
period of 430 years, have sometimes fallen in the beginning, 
and sometimes in the depth of winter. 

The Egyptians claim the Epagones, and the accurate com- 
putation of time, as inventions of their own ancestors. This 
claim may be granted, if we take their own account of the 
inventor. The first Thoth, amongst other things, calculated 
the annual period. We learn from Manetho, the celebrated 
Egyptian historian, who relates the genuine traditions of his 
nation, that this Tlioth lived hefoYe the flood. For he left; 
his discoveries engraved upon certain columns, in the sacred 
Dialed, and in Hieroglyphic Letters (where we may observe 
by the way that hieroglyphics, in ani/ particular dialeSl, 
where Hieroglyphics representing elementary sounds) and, 
after the deluge (another) Thoth (or philosopher) the son of 
Agathodemon (Osiris or Mizraim) transcribed these inscrip- 
tions into books, and placed them in the sanctuaries of the 
Egyptian temples. Jpud Euseh. prap. Ev. L. 1. C. 9. What 
discoveries do the Egyptians boast of, whic?i were not origi- 
nally derived from the Great Thoth ? Those ancestors of the 
Egyptians, who so eminently distinguished themselves, were 
then antediluvians, and consequently the common parents of 
ail other nations. 

When strangers spoke of the deluge, the Greeks imme- 
diately thought of Deucalion's flood, which they date in the 
16th Century before Ciirist, but which, in facft, could have 
been no other than the flood of Noah. 

Tiioth is said to have left 3650,3 Bolls of his discoveriesf^ 



25 



by which the learned understand,, periods of time which he 
had calculated. I find, by Philo Jndaeus, that the ancient 
Mystagogaes regarded 100 as a perfe6i; number. As the parts 
which composed a perfed whole : or as the number of units 
which constituted tx complete series. If we regard 100 parts 
as equal to a complete diurnal revolution, then 365^5 parts 
will amount to 363 days and 6 hours : or if 100 years con- 
stitute a perfect age, agreeably to Philo's application of the 
number in the case of Abraham, then 36525 will be the 
diurnal revolutions comprehended in that age. This I con- 
sider as a moTe simple method of accounting for the number 
of the Hermetic volumes, than by supposing a multiplication 
of cycles, which must imply much more than a true calcu- 
lation of the solar period. 

The Egyptians had years, as they are styled by the Greeks, 
of 6, 4, or 3 Month?. They may have divided the annual 
Circle into seasons, by inscribing some of their geometrical 
figures, as the line or the triangle, or else the square, 
touching at the 4 cardinal points. Still the complete circle 
remained the same. Is there nothing in the old testament to 
confirm the antiquity of this computation and the use of the 
Epagones ? Job speaks (Chap. iii. 6.) of days joined to the 
year, exclusive of the number of the months. The Epa- 
gones appear then to have been known, out of Egypt, about 
the time when Abraham settled in the land of Canaan, and 
during the life of the great patriarchs. Let us consider Noah's 
year. In the history of the deluge we have 5 successive 
months consisting altogether of 150 days, or 30 days each. 
I cannot conceive how such months could have been formed 
upon any lunar observation. From the first day of the tenth 
month, we have an enumeration of 6l days, together with 
an unspecified period of time, before the commencement of 
the succeeding year. A complete year in Noah's days could 



26 



not then have consisted of fewer than 12 such months or 
360 days. But if with the hest copies of the 70^ and with 
some other versions of credit,, we date the 61 days from the 
first of the Eleventh months this point must be regarded as 
fully determined. There will be 12 months and a few days 
over, during which Noah waited for the return of the third 
dove, and before he removed the covering of the ark, on the 
jint day of the first month of the new year. And there is 
the greatest probability in favour of this reading. Noah 
iJready hiew that the waters were abated from aff the earth. 
The question was now, whether the Earth produced any 
thing, or whether the dove would be compelled by hunger 
to return to the ark. It is not to be supposed that after 
having, for some time, dispatched his weekly messengers, 
the patriarch should now wait 29 days to make this experi- 
ment; 3 or 4 days must have been fully sufficient for the 
puiTJOse. Would not these circumstances have pointed out 
some error in the text, had no ancient version suggested- and 
authorized its corre6lion ? Upon this authority we have 
12 months of 30 days days each, and the Epagones, or in all 
365 days. Bat how are we to account for the number and 
the precise length of the months ? Perhaps something in the 
following manner. The first periodical phoenomenon which 
attracted the notice of our first parents was probably the re- 
appearance of the moon, after the change. The iteration of 
the seasons, and the periodical approach and retreat of the 
sun, wdth which the seasons were obviously conneded, must 
have idso presented themselves to observation. It could not 
but be desirable and useful tc ascertain the period of these 
changes. The m.oon was icsorted to, as the first means of 
computation, and 12 lunations were found to come round 
nearer to the same point, than any other number : Hence the 
(■.Zk^tlvc months. But these were very soon discovered to be too 
short. The object in view was to obtain a knowledge of the 



,27 

return of the sun and the seasons. His course was then divided 
into 12 portions or signs^ coiTesponding witli the number of 
moons in the first computation). Each of these portions was 
found to consist of 30 days and A fra6tion ; but as it would be 
inconvenient to divide aday^ the whole number was retained^ 
and the surplus added to complete the year. 

The first idea of a year must have been that of the return of 
the sun and the seasons to the same point. And from the 
^'^siblc revolution of the sun, men must have first obtained 
months and years thus constructed. Hence the Hebrew term 
for a year nili* implies an Iteration, Kepetition, a Return to 
the same point. This could have been no other than the 
retm-n of the sun and the seasons. The sun was tlie great 
luminaiy which, by his regular com*se amongst the other lights 
or stars, was appointed to measure years. Gen. i. 14, iG. 

If the moon was first resorted to for the purpose of measuring 
the sun's course, it was soon found inadequate to the purpose. 
Its revolution had no connection with tlie return of the seasons. 
It only served to suggest a division of the sun's course into 12 
portions. In most nations, of which any ancient records and 
traditions are preserved, we find that this division of the year, 
and the signs of the zodiac, by w^iich it was marked, were 
known from remote ages. The discoveiy is claimed by several 
different nations, a circumstance whicli generally attends those 
inventions which were derived from tlie common parents of the 
nations. The history of the deluge is understood to be recorded 
in the names and delineations of some of the constellations. 
It is not improbable that the Noachida;, assigned to them new- 
names and representations, in order to commemorate this 
awful event, in the volume of the heavens, which would be 
open to their posterity, in every region of the emth. But with 
BO postdeluvian nation can astronomical studies have origi- 



28 



mated'. Astronomical observations had been preserved at 
Babj^Ion^ for somewhat more than 19 centuries^ before the 
conquest of that city by Alexander. They had therefore 
coiiimenced from the very time when^ agreeably to om* chro- 
nology, the sons of men first began to dwell in the land of 
Shinar^ 

Before their removal into that country, they could have had 
na observations calculated for the latitude of Babylon, and 
their date, from tliis very sera, absolutely proves that the 
science was not the discovery of the inhabitants, but that they 
brought it with them, from their former residence amongst the 
mountains of Ararat, where the antediluvian astronomy had 
already been adjusted to the circumstances of time and place. 
An investigation and discovery of the principles of the science 
must necessarily have preceded a series of just observations. 

The antiquity of this study may be inferred fix)*m the book 
of Job, where several stars and constellations are mentioned, 
in conne6lion with observations upon the seasons, and as parts 
of the works of God, which had been pointed out by the search 
of the great fathers, of the human race. 

Tlie Mosaical years from the Creation cannot, one with 
another, have fallen much short of solar revolutions, which 
were evidently the measure of calculation in the time of Noah ; 
for the age of this patriarch rather exceeds an avarage of the 
age& of his progenitors. 

From their common ancestors then, the several nations may 
have derived the nidiments of astronomy, and a pretty exax^i 
knowledge of the annual period. Different societies may, for 
the regulations of festivals and for various purposes^, have 
employed lunar calculations, and reckoned from the age of a 



29 

moon which appeared after a certain equinox or solstice, or 
after the rising of a certain star; but such calculations were 
adjusted by C3xles so as not materially to affecl the ttuth of 
chronology. If we find a people acquainted only with lunar 
months, or only with ^ears of 360 days, that people must 
have fallen, at some period, into a state of rudeness far below 
the standard of the primitive ages, 

6. A great philosopher of our own days accounts for the 
marine substances found in various parts of the earth, by 
supposing that, at the deluge, the primaeval continent sub- 
sided, and the bed of the old ocean heaved itself above the 
waters so as to constitute the present habitable world. This 
hypothesis may not be devoid of truth, yet I tliink it ought to 
be received witli caution and great limitation. There can be 
no doubt that great local alterations took place wiien tlie foun- 
tains of the great deep were broken up. Yet it appears to me 
that the universal deluge w^as not so much direcled against the 
eaith itself, as against the lives of its inhabitants, and that the 
general face of the globe, as to its grand features, was not 
materially changed. As to the marine substances, which are 
seldom entire, we must recollect that the great deep covered 
die earth at the time of the creation, and the waters may have 
begun to form the embryo of their productions, before they 
were wholly gathered together into one place. The impe- 
tuous currents of the deluge may have forced upward some of 
the younger fry, w hich partly came to maturity, in the shoal- 
waters upon the sides of the mountains, during the continuance 
and gradual subsiding of the flood. And in other instances, 
the bursting of the internal abyss may have forced up moun- 
tains and large islands, from the bottom of the ocean^ 
crowned with thcii* unknown inhabitants. 

That the general face of the earth was not transformed, we 



30 



have several reasons to believe. We find traditions in many 
counlries, that certain mountains, rivers, and even cities had 
survived the deluge, or, at least, that new cities were built 
upon the site of the old ones, and retained their names. What- 
ever credit may be given to the particulars of such traditions, 
their whole sum, and their great geographical extent, suffi- 
ciently declare the general opinion of antiquity upon this 
subje6i;; and it is a subjecl;, upon which it may be supposed, 
that some historical truth survived. 

Moses describes the branches of the river of Eden, which 
had existed from the Creation, by their names and courses, 
as known in his own time. No circumstance could possibly 
have constituted the identity of these rivers, but the identity 
of the country through which they flowed. It is evident then 
that the part of the old continent which formed the cradle of 
the human race, and the centre of antediluvian population, 
survived the deluge. Wh}' should we think otherwise of those 
remote regions, which must have been less obnoxious to tlie 
Divine displeasure ? 

It appears that even the trees were not wholly eradicated, 
that their vegetative power was not destroyed, and that the 
productions of the earth were not re-created, but gradually 
recovered. For no sooner had the waters left the surface of 
the ground than the olive-trees began to put forth leases, 
" And the dove came to Noah in the Evening, and lo ! in Kcr 
mouth was an olive leaf plucked off." It must have been a 
leaf in full vegetation, otherwise it could not have been dis- 
tinguished from the leaf of a branch which had floated upon 
the waters. But though the dove found dry land, and trees 
producing leaves, she found as yet no proper sustenance, and 
therefore was compelled to return — a necessity to which she 
was not reduced at her next visit, when vegetation was furtlicr 
advanced. 



31 



It IS not then Improbable that many ruins of the x^-orks of 
men — such works as had been designed to outhve their 
antediluvian constructors^ may have survived tlie deluge. — - 
Such remains may have suggested to Nimrod and his associates 
the idea of making brick, and ereding the tower of BabeL 
Without some leading hint, we can hardly conceive that 
mankind were then in an apt situation to embrace so vast a 
design. Tlie mutual cohortations of the children of men— 
*^ Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly," clearly 
imply that they were previously acquainted with the durable 
nature of brick, and with the method of preparing it. 

At any rate, large countries retained after the deluge the 
situation they had occupied before. They must have been 
recognized by Noah. And it appears in fact that, in after 
ages, the geography of the old world was not wholly forgotten. 
The site of Paradise is minutely described, by its relative 
position to certain streams that traversed well-known regions. 
The residence of Cain, in the land of Nod, on the East of 
Eden, a land known in the time of Moses, is pointed out; and 
the name and situation of his city, the oldest city in the world, 
are still upon record. Noah could not then have been igno- 
rant of the general extent and nature of the patrimony lie left 
to his offspring. He must have had some knowledge of the 
face of the earth, as far as it had been known and inhabited 
before the flood. He had dwelt upon it for a space of six 
hundred years. He must have known how its various regions 
were divided by seas, rivers and mountains. He must have 
heard something of the nature, temperature and extent of 
these regions. Accordingly he appears to have been aware of 
the disproportion of the lot assigned to Japheth, when he pro- 
phetically promises that " God shall enlarge him." 

In the days of Pelcg, who was bom about a centuiy after 



32 



the deluge and died ten years before Noah, we are told 
obliquely that the earth teas divided. The manner in which 
this event is touched upon by Moses shews that the circum- 
stances of it were familiarly known in his time. But our 
accounts of it are rather scanty. In one other passage, the 
sacred historian alludes to the time, " AYhen the Most High 
divided to the nations their inheritance." From these passages 
we may collect that, by a Divine decree, there was a solemn 
division of the countries amongst the descendants of Noah. 
This division took place in the time of the great patriarch, 
and there can be no doubt but it was condu6led under his 
inspection, and ascertained by lot, as we find a similar 
division of the land of Canaan amongst the Israelites. 

Throughout Gen. c. x. Moses is not speaking of a com- 
pulsory separation of families ; but of a regular division of the 
earth amongst the Noachidce. ^^ The sons of Japheth — By 
these were the isles of the gentiles divided, in their Lands. — < 
Tlie sons of Ham — in their countries and in their iiations. — 
The sons of Shem — in their lands, after their nations. These 
are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, 
in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the 
earth after the flood." v. 2, 5, 20, 31, 32. 

The name of Peleg gives occasion to specify the tune, 
zvhen the land zoas divided, not when the people were scattered 
abroad. The narrative of this division is interrupted only by 
the incidental account of the rebellion and ambition of 
Nimrod, the subje6l of which is resumed and its consequences 
described chap. xi. If Nimrod's kingdom comprized the 
whole of mankind, their scattering abroad must have been, 
each into his land, agreeably to the previous division; but it is 
sufficiently evident that Nimrod's empire was not universal. — 
Ashur^ Jilam, JNlizraim, Canaan; Gomer, Javan and many 



33 



(^thers, certainly retired with^ at leasts, part of their families. 
In a subsequent age we find amongst the children of Canaan 
many little settlements of Amakins or Giants. But that was 
not the general description of the Canaanites. They were not 
all Anakims. 

The language of the whole earth was confounded. Indivi- 
duals, perhaps of each family, experienced this confusion and 
aftenvards carried it with them into all lands, whither they were 
dispersed. We say, the peace of all Europe is disturbed, when 
only the minds and a(5lions of certain descriptions of men are 
irregularly aifedled. 

The Heathens retained some traditions of such a distribu- 
tion. The Phoenician Historian says that Clonus (the Hus- 
bandman) bestowed upon Thoth the Kingdom of Egypt, and 
upon Minerva that pf Attica. Hesiod speaks of a general as- 
signment by lot, to all the sons of Heaven and Earth, and 
adds that the Titans were permitted to enjoy their portion, 
according to the former distribution} which was made in (he 
beginning. Theog. 390 — 42o.* 

The very idea of Noah's dividing the land amongst his des- 
cendants, necessarily presupposes his knowledge of the land 
that w^as to be so divided. He must have described the several 
shares, their extent and boundaries, by certain names. And 
these, in general, could have been no other than the names^ 
by which the same regions, rivers and mountains had been 
already known to him, and consequently, which they had 
borne before the flood. Thus may we account for the identity 
of the names of several streams and mountains, in ancient 

* See many and strong authorities for a general division by lot, Bryant'% 
Analyiis iii, 13, and Holtocll's Mythol. DiB. v. Earth, 

€ 



34 



geography, from India to Britain, and from the Northerm 
Ocean to the middle of Africa. The names must have been 
descriptive, in the primitive kmguage, and several streams and 

mountains must have come under the same description. 

From the time of this general allotment, it seems to have 
been a common practice for men to distinguish themselves 
and their children by the name of their patrimony or estate. 
Hence Moses, in his genealogies of the early ages, frequently 
gives us the names of cities and distridts, or names descriptive 
of local and relative situations, instead of the propernames of 
men, 

The declaration of this distribution seems to have been 
made after the human race had assembled iri the land of 
Shimar (Jfter Cronus came into the land of the South, Sanchon.) 
The founding of the kingdom of Nimrod, The Son of Rebellion, 
and the enterprize of those Children of men vrho joined his 
party, was in dire6l opposition to the Divine decree. It was 
lest they should be scattered abroad, or to prevent the execution 
of a purpose already known and declared; but not as yet 
carried into effe6l. The topic will be resmned in the course 
of my sketches. 



IV. 

On the Antiquitij of writing. 



X HERE can be little doubt that the primitive ages pos- 
sessed some means, beside oral tradition, of recording and 
perpetuating their several branches of knowledge, but re- 
spe61;ing the nature of these means, we are left somewhat in 
the dark. It is universally allowed that no human device 
could have answered this purpose better than alphabetical 



¥ 



¥ 



35 



writing. Were the early ages acquainted with an alphabet'^ 
Tills has been a great question. Amongst some ancient and 
modern nations,, we find pidure writing, hieroglyphical re- 
presentations, or else arbitrary signs of ideas, employed as 
the general means of preserving memorials. But v/lietlier any 
of these are the remains of a primitive art, or the resources of 
those societies which had forgotten the accomplishments of 
their forefathers, is another question. Our lower order of me- 
chanics and labourers, who have never been taught to vrrite, 
use a variety of marks and figures, to record their little trans- 
adlions : And if one of these families were removed to a se- 
questered island, and excluded from other society, this would 
become their established mode of writing, though they were 
descended from a people who had the use of an alphabet. 

The sacred volume has given us no express information, 
relative to the antiquity of an alphabet. It has been the opi- 
nion of some eminent men, that this important expedient was 
Divinely communicated to Moses, when he received the tables 
of the law upon Mount Sinai. But it is clear from the 
testimony of Moses himself, that this opinion is erroneous. 
Of this, the following proofs have been urged ; and, for my 
own part, I cannot but regard them as incontrovertible.* We 
are informed (Ex. xvii.) that Amalek came and fought with 
Israel in Rephidim, and was there overcome. And the Lord 
said unto Moses, ^^ Write tliis for a memorial in a book, and 
rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the 
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." As this record 
related exclusively to Amalek, it might be concluded that the 
command zcrite this was given in Rephidim, immediately after 
the war, and before Israel had come near to _\iount Sinai. 

* For several of these observations, I am indebted to AsUc, on writing :-< 
But I quote from memory, 

C 2 



36 



But the context is decisive. Moses built an altar (in Rephi- 
dim) and called the name of it Jehovah-Nissi ; for he said, 
" Because the Lord hath szoorn, that the Lord will have war 
with Amalek, from generation to generation. Moses knew, 
therefore, what was meant by a Book, and was acquainted 
with the nature of MemorialSy the art of Writing, and of 
Reading or rehearsing out of memorials, before the delivery 
of the sacred tables. Again (Ex. xxviii.) Moses is commanded 
to take two onyx stones and grave upon them the names of 
the children of Israel — ^^ AVith the work of an engraver in 
stone, LIKE the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the 
two stones, with the names of the children of Israel." In the 
3ame chapter, he is further commanded to engrave twelve 
stones, with the names of the children of Israel, according fo 
their names, like the engravings of a signet. In these passages 
w^e have a constant reference to a well known art of engraving 
names upon signets ; and these engravings cannot be regarded 
as cyphers or mere hieroglyphical symbols; for (v. 36) we find 
another command to make a plate of pure gold, and grave 
upon it, like the engravings of a signet, " HOLINESS TO 
THE LORD." This cannot possibly mean any thing else 
than writing in JVords and in Letters: and all these com- 
mands were given, before the first tables were delivered. 

It is then an indisputable fa6i:, that books or memorials in 
writing, and consequently reading, were things well under- 
stood before the giving of the sacred tables. These tables 
certainly consisted of alphabetical writing, and the preceding 
inscriptions were undoubtedly of the same kind, and in the 
same character. Otherwise the introdu6lion of a nezv and 
sacred mode of writing must soon have rendered the former, 
and less perfe6l mode obsolete; and the names upon the gems 
and the golden plate must have become obscure and uninteU 
ligible. 



37 

But in this age, the art of writing could not have been a 
recent invention. The engraving of na^iies upon signets is 
referred to, as a thing pubhcly known ; and surely, the first 
essays in writing had not been made in precious stones. — 
Signets were used by the Israelites before they went down into 
Egypt, and it is not improbable that they were inscribed. — 
Their inscriptions must have been in simple charaders, adapted 
to the subject and the space which the gems afforded; whereas 
the letters in general use in Egypt seem to have consisted of 
the representations of animals, and other produ6lions of nature. 
In some Oxd Asiatic alphabets, we still discover ktttrs in the 
figures of certain quadrupeds, and exa6lly similar to some of 
the hieroglyphics on the Egyptian obelisks. Such characlers 
may have been liable to abuse, amongst a people so prone to 
idolatry as the Israelites were, and for this reason, it may have 
been commanded that the more simple alphabet of the en- 
graver of signets siiould be used in preference. 

In the book of Job, we find the antiquity of writing asserted 
in a manner no less positive. In one passage, that illustrious^ 
sufferer complains, ^' Thou writest bitter things against me^ 
and makest me to possess the iniquity of my youth .^' In 
another, he exclaims, ^^ Oh ! that my words were now written. 
Oh ! that they were printed in a book ! (stamped, as on the 
Babylonian bricks r) — that they were graven with an iron pen 
and lead in the rock for ever!" Here writing is not spoken of 
as a new invention. It must have been an art long established^ 
before its various forms, uses and properties could have been 
so well understood. In the time of Job, it was applied, as at 
present, to the taking of minutes of trivial circumstances or 
zcrithig of bitter tilings; the recording of greater events in 
books, and the preserving a lasting memorial of what is 
very remarkable, in public inscriptions. It must have been 
one of those arts which are ascribed to the search of the father* 

c 3 



38 



of the human race. Had there been any just grounds for 
ascribing the invention to a Divine communication on Mount 
Sinaij it is impossible but that some notice would have been 
taken of so wonderful an event. We should have had some 
hint of the Great lawgiver's instructions. Every circumstance 
of the giving of the law is minutely recorded^ but not a word 
has been found to this purpose. On the contrary, the 
Israelites appear to have been readers in general. Each of 
the princes looks upon, and discriminates the rod which bore 
his own name (Numb, xvii.) 

Again : such a circumstance as the original communication 
of writing must have been notorious to the whole assembled 
nation. A thing so remarkable, and of such magnitude^ 
could not have been forgotten. Some allusion to it, at least, 
would have occurred in the subsequent writings of the old tes- 
tament ; but nothing appears. The vanity of the more modern 
Jews would have disposed them to claim the discovery j but 
their traditions uniformly ascribe it to the first age of man. 

It may be demanded — How happens it, if the art of writing 
was really understood by the primitive ages, that Moses has 
not recorded the name of its inventor, amongst other antedi- 
luvian instructors .? 

To this it may be answered. That the Mosaic history of the 
Antediluvians is a mere epitome. The historian records only 
the inventions of one family, that of Cain. His catalogue 
must have omitted many great arts which the Antediluvians 
possessed. Who was the first carpenter or the first weaver? 
Had the descendants of Cain a6lually invented writing, yet its 
progress to perfe6tion, from its first simple iiidiments, may 
have been so gradual, that Moses could not ascertain the 
name of its first inventor 5 and he records no invention, where 



39 

he has not an opportunity of adding this circumstance. His 
Resign seems to have been^ not so much to mark the antiquity 
of the arts known in his time^ as to preserve a memorial of 
eminent persons; more particularly in that family which was 
now wholly cut off, hom the face of the earth. 

But why has not Moses mentioned, or alluded to ancient 
Wiitings, in some passage of his history be&re the xvih chap, 
of Exodus? 

If it be jEertain that no such mention or allusion is made, it 
may be replied that the subjed; may not have come imme- 
diately in his way, and that it was not the custom of v/riters,, 
far less ancient than Moses^ to be minute in quoting their 
authorities. 

But we are not certain that Moses has not both alluded to, 
and expressly mentioned writings, of a date long prior to his 
own time. In the historical part of the sacred scripture, we 
frequently find references to the authority of books which are 
no longer extaut. Such historial parts were therefore com- 
piled from the materials of earlier writers, and not communi- 
cated to the authors of the present volumes, by immediate inspi- 
ration. It is sufficient in this case to believe, that the Divine 
spirit dire6led the judgment of these authors, and disposed 
them to examine with diligence, and record nothing but the 
truth. 

The book of Genesis, if we except the account of tlie 
creation, consists of matter purely historical, or such as might 
have cpme within the compass of human research, and have 
been recorded in history. And Moses no where dechues that 
he derived it from any other source. ISo part of it is intro- 
duced with the solemn form, ^^ The Lord spake unto Moses." 



40 

tVe have it siiriply as a brief introdu(5lion to the history of the 
Israelites, and the promulgation of the law. Between the 
several portions of this introductory history, a considerable 
difference of style has been remarked. They differ in this 
lesped from each other, and from the usual style gf Moses ia 
his subsequent writings. 

In the several portions of this primitive history, the same 
events are recapitulated, to the same general effed, but with 
"new and peculiar circumstances. This is a thing not usual in 
the original and entire composition of one author. It has 
rather the character of a colledlion of documents. 

The several portions are also distinguished by such appro- 
priate titles as, in any other volume of antiquity, would be ac- 
knowledged to point out the beginning of detached compo- 
sitions. 

Thus chap. i. and to v. 4, chap. ii. contains the history of 
the creation, and the institution of the sabbath. 

Then follows another brief history of the creation, the 
garden of Eden and the fall of man, with an exordium which 
intimates a distinct; and independent composition. ^' These are 
the generations of the heaven and the eaith," &c. This book 
concludes with chap. iii. 

It is remarkable that the only term for the Divine Being, in 
the former of these portions, is Elohim, God, which is re- 
peated 35 times. In the latter portion, excepting in the 
conversation of Eve with the serpent, it is Jehovah Elohim^ 
the Lord God, which is also repeated 20 times. 

In chap. iv. which contains the history of Cain and Abel, 



41 



and of the descendants of the former, the sacred name k . 
Jehovah, without any variation, excepting once, in a ^puch 
of Eve, 

The use of these terms as here described is, I think, a pecu« 
liarrty which could not well have happened, in the original 
and entire composition of one age^ one country, and one m.an. 
For however the mysterious meaning of the terais themselves 
inay be discriminated, yet Elohim iu the first chapter, and 
Jehovah Elohim, in the second and third, are evidently used 
in a synonymous sense^ and precisely the same operations are 
ascribed to them. 

Chap. V. beg'ms with an appropriate title, which more par- 
ticularly indicates a distin61; and independent composition. — 
*^ This is the Book (or Record) of the generation of Adam," 
Here again, the history of the creation of man is briefly 
recited, as an introdu6i;ion to this separate book, which is 
complete in its kind; for it begins from the creation and 
concludes with the birth of the sons of Noah. May it not be 
regarded as a transcript from an authentic genealogical table 
or pedigree, which had been regularly kept in the family of 
this patriarch I 

We have afterwards — '' These are the generations of Noah^* 
*^ These are the generations of the sons of Noah," &c. These 
things I cannot but consider as internal proofs, that Moses 
has not only alluded to writings which existed before his own 
time, but has actually given us transcripts of some of the 
compositions of the primitive ages: and that the book of 
Genesis, like other historical parts of the scripture, consists iu 
a great measure of compilaiions from more early documents. 
May not these several Books, which recapitulate the^ same 
€\^nts, and the matter of which has not been wholly forgotten 



42 



by ilie heathens^ be regarded as so many primitive records^ 
adding mutual strength to eacii other, and refle6ting mutual 
light, in the same manner as the books of Kings and Chrg-; 
nicies, and the narratives of the four Evangelists ? 

If we duly consider the matter contained in the book of 
Genesis, I tiiink Ave shall be led to conclude that much of it 
must necessaiily have been coile6led from prior documents. 
For example (Gen* xxii. 20.) Abraham receives information 
respe6ling the family of his brother Nahor. No reason is 
given why it was told Abraham : nor does any thing imme- 
diately follow, as a consequence of such information. But as 
the account related to Abraham's family, we are left to 
conclude, that he recorded it; and, upon his anthoriti/, Moses 
preserves the record. He gives it not as a subjed; of revela- 
lation, nor as the result of his enquiry amongst the descendants 
of Nahor, nor yet does he content himself with registering 
the simple fadl, but he tells us Z£)hat had bee??, told Abraham at 
such a time. At a distance of 400 years, he transcribes the 
names of Nahor's eight sons in due order, with some particular 
circumstances respeding them, as it had bee?i told Abraham, 
and therefore, as it must have been recorded in some memo- 
rials in Abraham's family. Moses must have possessed a very 
exa6l detail of the transa6lions of Abraham's time. Hence 
the circumstantial account of the expedition of the four kings, 
of that patriarch's treaties with the princes of the land in which 
he sojourned, of his sacrifices, and of the promises he 
received, and the allusion (Ex. xii.) to the year, the month, an4 
the very day on which he began his peregrinations. 

In confirmation of the opinion advanced above, it may be 
observed, that history furnishes no instance of an exa6l chro- 
nology having been preserved, for a series of ages, by any 
people who were totally illiterate. Relative dates, and the 



43 



emimeration of months and days^ would soon become unrna- 
nageable in oral tradition: and the precise length of mens' 
lives, and their age at the birth of their children, are circum- 
stances not likely to have been the subje6l of immediate 
revelation to Moses. Yet his history of the primitive world 
preserves an unbroken chain of chronology, from the creation. 

Sacred and profane writers have mentioned an ancient mode 
of recording fa6ls by means of nails fixed in pieces of timber 
or notches cut in sticks ; but if these customs were capable of 
preserving historical fa6ls, connedled with their dates, for 25 
centuries, we must regard them as, in some manner, equiva- 
lent to the use of letters ; and I trust I shall be able to prove 
in the ensuing essays, that this was the case. 

The enumeration of circumstances, in the history of tlie 
deluge, clearly points out the early use of letters, or of some-^ 
thing equivalent to letters. 

Here we have upon record, the particular month, and the 
day of the month, upon which the rain began — the number 
of days it continued — ^the period during which the earth was 
covered — the day on which the ark first rested — on which 
the tops of the mountains were first seen — on which the face 
of the ground was first ohserved to be dry, and on which Noah 
and his family descended from the ark, with several other 
particulars. Surely all this must have been colle<fted from an 
exadl re^ster, kept at the time, and committed to writing, by 
those who were a6lually present. Would it not be detracting 
from the credit of the history to think otherwise ? 

Here again, Moses records not the phaenomena of the 
deluge, as simple fa6ls, but he records them, as they had 
been sftv? and observed by Noah. He does not tell us upon 



44 



what day the mountains first emerged from the waters^, hut 
tipon what day thdr tops were seen. We are infonned indeed 
that '' In the 601st year, on the first day of the first month, 
the waters were dried up from off the earth.'* But how was 
this known? The sacred historian informs us — On that day 
*^ Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and 
behold the face of the ground was dry." It is then recorded 
upon the authority of Noaii's observation. 

I would remark another minute circumstance in this history, 
which tends forcibly to the same point, llie waters are said 
ta have prevailed 15 cubits upwards, and the mountains were 
covered. Now mountains are so various in their height^ that, 
if by this passage we are simply to understand that the waters 
were 15 cubits higher than the mountains, it can mean nothing* 
The waters must have been much deeper, over the mountains 
of Ararat, before they could hade reached the top of the Alps. 
And the mountain where the ark rested could not have been 
an inaccessible peak; it must have afforded a pra<5ticable 
descent for man and beast. 

But let us recollecl that the whole depth of the ai'k was 30 
cubits. In order to give its motion a due steadiness on the 
flood, and at the same time, to afford a sufficient access of 
air to the middle and lower story, through the window that 
was in its side, we must suppose that, together with its freight, 
it drew about 15 cubits, or half its own depth, of water. Yet 
it was lifted up from the earth, it floated over the summits 
of the hills, without touching them, till the seventh montli; 
when it indicated an abatement of the waters, by resting upon 
a mountain of Ararat : and this happened upwards of twO 
months before the top of any other neighbouring mountain 
was seen. These circumstances must have been minutely 
observed by Noah, and from theni; he must have colleded. 



4S 



that the waters were 15 cubits deep over those uioui,itains. 
Here then is one particular, in the history of the dehige, 
evidently derived from aclual observation,, and recorded to 
posterity by those who had remarked the circpmst^mce upon 
the spot. 

If to all these presumptive arguments of the high antiquity 
of writing, we add, that the most ancient nations, in various 
parts of the world, those which were first regularly settled, 
and were most tenacious of their primitive customs and 
institutions, such as the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Egyp- 
tians, the Phrygians, the Pelasgi, the Indians and the 
Turdetani are found to have possessed the art of alphabetical 
writing : and that several of these societies regarded letters as 
coeval with the nation itself, if not with the human race, we 
shall have abundant reason to conclude, that letters were 
certainly known to mankind before the separation of families, 
and very probably before the deluge. We need not then 
pronounce the tradition of the Jews, respecling the learning 
of the primitive world, altogether vain and fanciful, nor the 
apostle unfounded in his quotation of the prophecy of Enochs 
ihe seventh from Adam. 

Piclure-VvTiting and arbitrary signs of ideas may have been 
the resource of societies which had forgotten the use of 

o 

letters, or, in other nations, they may have been used toge- 
ther with letters, for compendium, for secrecy, for ostentation 
or ornament. We still retain their use in astronomy, 
algebra, numerals, marks of pauses or reference, and abun-? 
dance of other instances. 



46 






Conditions of men in primitive society/ — The separation of the 

NoackidcB» 

X HE same hypothesis which regarded man, in his pri- 
mitive and natural state^ as placed extra civitatem, or in the 
condition of an miconne6led savage, has furnished occasion 
to some late theorists to contend for the Rights of Man , to 
insist upon an equality of condition, and to assert the unlaw- 
fulness of every degree of authority, which has not been 
personally acknov/ledged or virtually conceded. I must* 
confess myself not so much of a philosopher or politician aa 
to perceive the principles upon which this do6lrine can be 
maintained. 

If all the children of nature have an equal claim to her 
bounty, then the brute creation, every thing that breathes, 
must be placed upon an equal footing with mankind. 

If a mere endowment with reason constitute a title to 
pre-eminence, then women and children must rank w^ith men, 
not only in an equality of condition, but in an mimunity 
from all controul which is not conceded, and in the right 
of delegating or exercising authority. 

If the prerogative of man be urged, upon the plea of 
superior mental powers, it must be recolleded that men differ 
from each other, in this resped, no less than iu the establislied 
gradations of society. 



47 

In vain should our theorists appeal to the precedent an4 
authority of history: for no such things as an equahty of 
conditions, and an avowed equaUty of rights, can be traced^ 
or even supposed to have existed in ci\dl Ufe. And even in the 
most savage nations, where society is not conne6led by any 
laws that extend beyond single families^ excepting the law 
of custom, it will be found that, in those families, authority 
and subordination are understood and admitted. The same 
distinction obtains in respe6l of rights. * The son who kills 
the bear or the seal, has a right to feast with his father upoii 
the train ; but the indolent brother, who refuses to join in the 
enterprize^ ha& no claim to come in for his share of the 
spoil. 

This is exa<ftly analogous to the distin6lion of rights, w^iicli 
is acknowledged in society, and it points out a necessaiy 
discrimination between social rights, and those which are 
properly natural. To those gifts which nature bestows in 
common to all her children, they have an equal right, such 
as breathing the vital air, seeing the light of the sun, or 
drinking of the cun^ent; but of such things as are either 
acquired or protected by "social regulations, society must have 
a right to dispose, agreeably to its laws: And such laws 
necessarily suppose authority, and consequently the duty of 
submission; permission, and consequently the power of 
restraint; relative connexions, and therefore, relative 
conditions. 

It follows then that, ever since mankind began to live in 
society, authority and subordination, agreeably to some 
certain rules, together with a variety of conditions, must have 
existed in the world. And this has been, according to the 
testimony of the sacred historian, from the day upon which 
God created man upon the earth. 



48 



When marriage was instituted between our first parents, 
a social and relative conne6tion was formed. At this time 
indeed, there could be no great diversity of conditions; yet 
authority and subordination were estabhshed, not as the resuk 
of a deliberative compaft_, but by a positive decree of God 
and nature. Eve submitted witii aifecStion to the generous 
dominion of her husband. Adam possessed a like authority 
over his children. It was from under the protection of his 
parents, and from the society of his brothers and sisters who, 
hy this time might be pretty numerous^ that Cain was forced 
to retire, when he complained that his punishment was ^nore 
than he could bear — ^because he was driven out from the face 
of the earth, and was doomed to be a fugitive and a wanderer. 

While the human race consisted but of one family, tlie 
authority of the chief was necessarily only patriarchal, or con- 
fined to iiis own relations and descendants. Such was the case 
in the days of Adam and of Noali. But the patriarch's power, 
from which there was no appeal, was not necessarily trans- 
mitted in the line of seniority. Several instances are recorded 
of the patriarchal privilege, to set aside the claim of 
primogeniture^^ to delegate his authority to either of his 
children and constitute him the chief among his brethren : 
And also to determine and declare the condition of the 
several branches of his descendants. Thus Noah gave the 
chief blessing to Shem, his second son, and doomed the soi\ 
of Ham to be servant of servants to his brethren. 

It may here be observed that, as Noah and his sons knew 
what was meant by a condition of servitude, they must have 
been acquainted with such a condition hefore the flood: And 
as the children of Ham were to serve the children of Shem 
add Japheth, it is clear that Noah did not regard all authority 
unjust^ which was not strictly patriarchal; when mankir^d 



49 

should have multiplied upon the earth, one family might 
exercise a lawful dominion over another family. This must 
have occurred to Noah, as a natural consequence of the pro- 
gressive state of society, and as a necessaiy repetition of what 
had taken place in the primitive world. 

For great kingdoms and states appear to have been formed 
amongst the antediluvians. They had then heroes and their 
conquerors, for such I apprehend were the giants which were 
in the earth in those days, who became mighti/ men, which 
were of old men of renown, Moses has not thought proper to 
enlarge upon the renown of these mighties, yet his oblique 
manner of speaking plainly alludes to some known history of 
them. They are not reprehended for the possession but the 
abuse of power. The general history of the antediluvians had 
not then been totally lost. 

Several heathen nations retained some fragments of this 
history for many ages. The Greek and Roman mythologists 
give us details of the actions of certain giants before the flood, 
but the story is spoiled by embellishment. The genuine works 
of Berosus, as we are told by Syncellus, contained the reigns 
of ten kings of Chaldea befoie the flood. This was the exadl 
immber of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah, both inclusive. 
Their residence seems to have been in the neighbourhood of 
the Euphrates. 

Nimrod, the mighty hunter, may then have done no new 
thing upon the earth, when he established a kingdom in 
Babylonia. The formation and maintaining of kingdoms and 
governments, whether good or bad, must suppose on the one 
hand, a diversity of conditions, and, on the other, a consi- 
derable progress in civilization, and the exercise of many arts, 
which could not but be useful and ornamental to society. 

D 



50 



Upon the whole, we find that the ages from the creation 
down to the deluge were not distinguished merely by the 
depravity of their morals, but also by their extensive acquisi- 
tions, in the various branches of useful knowledge, and by the 
first developement of the forms and conditions of social life ; 
and that the great patriarch of the new world took care to 
preserve the valuable attainments of former ages, and transmit 
them to his descendants, when the Most High divided to the 
nations their inheritance. Which memorable event took 
place in his own days and under his inspection. 

It may be objected that, however general and successful 
the search of the antediluvians may have been ; yet Noah's 
information may not have been co-extensive, but confined to 
certain branches of knowledge. But will not a consideration 
of the peculiar circumstances of this patriarch, in a great 
measure, over-rule the objedlion ? 

For 120 years before the flood, he had been apprized of the 
Almighty's purpose to destroy the old world, and to renovate 
the human race in his offspring. This must have induced 
him to employ much of this time in considering the acquisi- 
tions of the age, in acquainting himself with numberless 
particulars, which are not expressly recorded, in discrimi- 
nating between the good and the bad, and in treasuring up all 
the knowledge which could be of real value, and conducive 
to the well being of future generations. And after the great 
catastrophe of the primitive world, he must have used the 
most effe6lual means for the perpetuating of this knowledge 
amongst his posterity. 

Accordingly we find that, in the next succeeding age, there 
were wise men who made it their business to communicate the 
treasures of wisdom which they derived from their father* — 



51 



*^ Which wise men have told from their fathers (and have 
not hid it) unto whom alone the earth was give?i.'^ Job viii. 
and XV. 

It appears then that, at no period from the creation to the 
distribution of the earth amongst the descendants of Noah, 
can savage life be regarded as the natural or the actual state 
of mankind. During this series of ages, the arts and occu- 
pations of civil hfe were regularly cultivated and advanced^ 
and social, moral and religious obligations were generally 
understood, though not uniformly respected. 

These valuable acquisitions could not fail of being trans- 
mitted, by the fathers of the nations, to their respective 
families, which settled in the various regions of the eaith. 

The early separation of mankind, and their distribution 
over the face of the globe, are events which have been 
refle6ted upon by writers of more presumption than piety, 
and of more fancy than sound judgment. It has been asserted 
that such measures could serve no purpose hut to prevent that 
7nutual aid and comfort which men might otherwise have 
afforded each other. A Divine decree is entitled to our silent 
respedl, though its wisdom and expediency be not obvious 
to human reason. But, in the present instance, they fully 
appear. It was surely designed in wisdom, that the whole 
Iiuman race should not be formed into one unweildy society^ 
in which justice could never have been equally administered, 
nor the comforts of life duly secured. It was then expedient 
that, at some time or other, they should be divided. Could 
any time ha/e been more happily chosen than the age of 
Noah ? His dominion extended over the whole earth. His 
inheritance was, upon all accounts, too large to be formed 
into one empire, In liis age all just authority was patriai-chal. 



52 



and this authority centred in himself. He was the common 
father of all his subjedls. In no siihseqiient period, in the 
history of man, could this remarkable circumstance have 
occurred. At no subsequent period then could a general 
distribution of the earth, amongst the nations, have been 
conduced with equal propriety or with equal effe61;. 

And how was Noah to divide his offspring, if not, as nature 
itself had discriminated them, into distin6l families? What 
could be more wise or more just than that he should invest 
every father with a patriarchal authority over his own house- 
hold, and thus give every rising society an opportunity to 
take possession of its allotted patrimony, as soon as it should 
become sufficiently numerous to contain social comfort within 
itself; while its children and its cattle were as yet easily 
removed, while it might easily be accommodated in the 
countries through which it had to pass, and before the beasts 
of the field were grealy multiplied? 

What could have been designed more wisely than to 
commit the forming and settling of every family to the im- 
mediate eye of a father, whose teim of life and paternal caye 
would be extended for a space of some centuries, whose 
occupation it would be to renew, in the succeeding gene- 
rations, the memory of the great events of history, and to 
instruct them in the useful knowledge which had been com- 
municated, and the moral precepts and religious dodlrines 
which had been inculcated, by the common patriarch?— 
Must not this have been the most effe6tual and ready method 
that could have been taken, to plant societies regularly 
formed, the arts of civil life, virtue, religion and morality in 
every region of the earth ? 

When great multitudes of men are drawn together into 



53 



one vortex, it alwaj^s Happens that many of tliem pursue tlieir 
private schemes and interests, by means inconsistent with the 
good of others. The laws of society are armed against 
such persons : they are expelled the community, or else en- 
deavour, by flight, to escape a more Severe punishment. 

• Had it been designed that mankind should have continued 
in one body, and only extend their habitations as they wanted 
room, it must have followed, that the more orderly and best 
disposed would be the least likely to remove from the house 
and inheritance of their fathers. The abandoned and 
profligate only would be driven out from men, and uniting in 
the bands of wickedness, in the surrounding, unoccupied 
regions; thither they would carry no useful laws, no just 
subordination, no morality, no pure religion, no science, and 
no arts but such as might quahfy them to ofier or to repel 
force, and enable them tq proteiSl theniselves, in the exercise 
of rapine and violence, 

Such societies have indeed been formed, in various partj 
of the world, and have grown up into mighty nations of 
dreadful barbarians. At times, they have over-run the 
countries of their ciA^lized neighbours, eflacing in their course 
almost every trace of humanity. Had the civilized part of 
the species continued in one aggregate body, had none but 
the outcasts of society been separated from that hodj, the 
accumulated mass of such barbarians must^ in a few ages^ 
Jiave become formidable to the globe. 



V. q 



54 



Of Nlmrod^s rebellion and apostaci/ — The confusion of tongues 
— The dispersion of the Giants. 



HE rebellion and apostacy of Nimrod and his adherents^ 
and the subsequent confusion of tongues,, and dispersion of 
the children of men from Babel, were undoubtedly events of 
considerable magnitude, in the early history of mankind. To 
these events the poets and mythological writers are full of 
allusion ; but the only plain details we have of them, are 
contained in Gen. x. v. 8 to 13. and xi. v. 1 to 10. 

From the foraier of these passages, we leani that Nimrod, 
a grandson of Ham, began to be a mighty one in the earth, 
and a mighty hunter before the Lord, or a violent persecutor ; 
and that he begaji to found a kingdom in Babel and the neigh- 
bouring country. From the latter passage, it may be colleded 
that mani/ of the children of men entered into his design, and 
hegan to build themselves a city and a tower, and to make 
themselves a name, for the express purpose of preventing the 
separation of families; but that this enterprize was offensive to 
the Lord, who therefore overthrew it by a miracle, confounded 
their language, and scattered them abroad from thence upon 
the face of all the earth. 

May I offer a few thoughts upon the nature and consequence 
of these events? Though I wish to form an accurate idea, how 
far the chain of primitive tradition was broken, and the plan 
of a regular distribution of the earth, amongst the descendants 
of Noah, disturbed by them; yet my sketches are not 
designed to supersede the learned disquisitions which have 



55 



already appeared upon the subject. The candid critic will 
pardon them^ if they furnish new and useful hints. The first 
thing to be considered is the extent of Nimrod's party. 

I . think we may venture to assert that previous to the 
building of Babel^ the human race^ generally speaking, was 
colle6led in Babylonia. For though the portion of Japheth 
and of Shem be alluded to, while the family of Is^oah resided 
amongst the mountains of Ararat, where the great patriarch 
planted the vine and drank of its produce, yet an actual 
separation had not taken place, before they came to the plain 
of Shinar. It was there that an enteiprize was set on foot, 
expressly to prevent that separation, which was understood to 
have been designed; though not as yet carried into effecl. — 
Hence the impiety of the enterprize. 

It has been a popular opinion, that this confederacy at 
Babel embraced the whole of mankind, excepting perhaps 
one family, and consequently, that the whole earth was 
equally affedied by the confusion of tongues, — that the primi^ 
tive language, unless preserved in the family of Ileber, was 
now lost, and the primitive religion universally conupted. — ' 
And, in the promiscuous dispersion which followed, men have 
lost sight of a previous and regular allotment. 

But this opinion seems to have arisen from a bare conside- 
ration of the history of Babel, Gen. xi. without duly regarding 
its connection with the history of Nimrod and his kingdom, in 
the preceding chapter. 

In the account of the confusion and dispersion, Moses 
speaks in such general terms that, at first view, his language 
may appear to admit of no qualification. A little reflexion, 
however, upon the subjed, and a comparison of the two 



56 



passages, amongst themselves, will discover that it both admits 
and requires a considerable limitation. 

For, in the first place, the confederacy was not headed by 
Noah himself, or by either of his sons or grandsons, but by a 
tliird in descent from Ham, under whom it cannot be supposed 
that, in an age, when patriarchal authority was acknowledged 
and respe6ted, any of the elder branches would enlist them- 
selves. Neither Ham nor Cush nor either of his brethren 
could then have been amongst the subjects of Nimrod, or the 
Bab3^1onian rebels. 

Nor did the patriarchs stand out alone. Tliere "were also 
families or societies of men, who had kept aloof. For the 
wickedness and persecution of Nimrod became proverbial, and 
continued so for many succeeding generations. " Wherefore 
it is said. Even as 'Nimrod, the migliti/ hunter before the LordJ' 
Now this proverb could not have been used amongst his own 
subjects and associates, who embraced his cause and assisted 
in his schemes; but in certain societies which had rejecled his 
authority, and abhorred his condu6l; and consequently became 
the objeds of his rage. 

And many such societies there evidently were. For as 
Nimrod became a mighty hunter or persecutor before the 
Lord, he must previously have divested himself of all venera- 
tion for the Lord, and all submission to his authority. 

Amongst the partizans of ISimrod, there could have been no 
true piety. Yet in several parts of the country where 
Abraham sojourned, and in the family and amongst the 
friends of Job, we find righteous societies, who worshipped 
the true God. Their fathers had not been amongst the 
hunters before the Lord, or the apostates from the primitive 
religion. 



■57 

Even in the house of Ham, the apostacy had not beea 
general. 

Abraham had lately come from Ur of the Chaldees^ a 
neighbourhood where the conduct of Nimi'od and his associates 
could not have been forgotten. 

Upon his arrival in the land of Canaan, where some hords 
of the Giants were now settled amongst the inhabitants, he 
observed the same corruption of religion and morals, which 
had once prevailed at Babylon. It was therefore natural for 
him to conclude, that this degeneracy was become almost 
universal in the house of Ham. Accordingly he imagined 
that the fear of God was not in Egypt or the land of the 
Philistines, as he approached the borders of those countries; 
but he was agreeably undeceived. Gen. xii. and xx. 

Pharaoh acknowledges the hand of the Lord, and the 
obligation of the moral law. 

Abimelech, the king of the Pliilistines, not only reveres the 
sacred name and acts with as much conscientious integrity as 
Noah himself could have done, but also appeals to the 
/Vlmighty for the general uprightness of his people. ^^ LojiD, 
wilt thou slay also a righteous nation r 

This nation must have conduced itself in a manner veiy 
different from other wicked nations, which the Lord had 
recently destroyed. 

The religion and morals then of the old Egyptians, and of 
their descendants the old Philistines, were not derived from 
the apostate race. They were hitherto patriarchal and pri- 
mitive, a certain proof that their fathers had not been conic- 
derates with xNimrod. 



58 



The prevalence of the name of Nimrod furnishes anothei 
argument against tha universality of his command. His own 
subjects could never have styled him. The Rebel, or Son oj 
Rebellion. They seem to have called him ^j;2 Baal, Belus, 
The Ruler; the verb b^D, implying. To have or take possession 

of', or authority over a thing; to marry or appropriate- 

Farkhurst, 

The same term is used as an epithet for the obje<^s of 
idolatrous worship, particularly the Sun ; but we are not from 
hence to infer, that Nimrod and the Sun were regarded as 
the same person. The title of Ruler may have been common 
to them with many others. 

The general use of the name of Babel is another circum'- 
stance, which forcibly argues the limitation of Nimrod's 
party. 

As the builders could not have distinguished their City by 
a term wdiich had any reference to confusion, we need not 
regard Babel as a play upon the original name, or at all 
similar to it. I rather think this name is nearly preserved by 
Moses, and recognized in the language of mythology. 

The children of men said. Let us build *n>I^ a city, and 
^*7AD a tower, and let us make us d"^ a Name, or Renown. 

This was the order by which they ascended the climax of 
their ambition : but w^hen they had attained the highest step, 
they must, from thence, have named their city. They must 
have called it oi:; Shem, the Name, or Renown. The other 
degrees would naturally be subjoined, to make out its descrip- 
tion. Thus it became ^IJD ^')^ CD\^ '^RENOWN, the city 
of the Tower.'' 



59 

Instead of ^"t^d, the children of men may have employed 
^)^^y Amud^ A Column or pillar, a term nearly synonimous 
with the former, and which is emphatically applied to The 
pillars of Heaven, or the Cones of mountains, and therefore 
was a very apt term to describe that tower, whose top might 
reach to Heaven. The name would then stand thus *7lDi^ n>)^ CD^l^ 
Shem OirAmud, Hence perhaps the Semiramis, Semiramid-os 
of mythology, the name by which Ninus or the Ninevite, in a 
subsequent age, married, or took possession of Babylon. 

If this conje<5lure be admitted, we may regard Nimrod and 
Babel as names which were imposed only by the enemies of 
this ambitious prince. And the prevalence of these names 
proves that his enemies were numerous. 

Are we then to conclude, that the associates of Nimrod 
consisted solely of his brethren and their children? This 
will by no means follow. Foi*, had one family only formed 
a conspiracy, the express reason here assigned for their 
enterprize could not have applied. In that case, they could 
not have been forced upon the expedient of making themselves 
a name, '^ Lest they should be scattered abroad upon the face 
of the whole earthy' for their destined habitation, as one 
family, must have been in some certain part of the earth, and 
in the neighbourhood of each other; whereas, on the 
contrary, they clearly understood that it was intended, they 
should be separated from one another, to the most remote 
corners. And accordingly, we find that the Lord interposed 
his power, while they were yet in the prosecution of their 
design, beginning to build the city and the tower, and 
scattered them from thence upon the face of all the earth. In 
all probability, he scattered them into those several regions, 
which had been originally destined for their respedive 
habitations, and whither many of their obedient brethren had 
already repaired. 



60 



Again : the language of the whole earth had been one^ ta 
the aera of the confusion: yet Moses speaks of the various 
tongues of the children of Shem and of JaphethJ as well as 
of the descendants of Ham^ at the time when they retired to 
their rcspedive patrimonies. The progeny of the former 
patriarchs were not^ therefore, wholly clear of the rebellion or 
of its punishment. 

The tradition of almost every country presents us with 
certain giants, exiles and wanderers, wiio intraded amongst 
the more regular and orderly inhabitants, and whose condition 
was at once the obje6l of pity and detestation. 

Upon the whole, it may be thought most agreeable to the 
Mosaic history, to universal tradition, and to truth itself, to 
conclude that some of the children of each of the three great 
patriarchs joined in the impious confederacy, and that other 
branches in each of these families, rejected the proposal. 
Nimrod^s subje6ls then consisted not of families, but of 
hidimduahf of a certain temper and disposition. 

As his confederacy did not embrace the whole of mankind, 
there can be no reason to suppose that those who were not 
concerned in it, immediately lost eitlier their religion or their 
language, or any part of the valuable traditions of their 
i'athcrs. 

Whatever may have been the extent of the Babj'lonian 
rebelUon, it could not have overthrown the original plan of 
a regular allotment. It was itself overthrown by a miracle: 
And the Ahnighty does not exert his miraculous power, to 
frustrate, but to enforce and accomplish llie designs of his. 
providence, and to bring to nought the counsels of wicked 
men. The miraculous interposition which now took place^ 



61 



must have been fully adequate to the puipose for which it 
Avas intended. . It must liave operated, as an effectual cor- 
re(5lion, or as a signal punishment,, which disposed the remains 
of the human race to comply with the Divme decree. 

Chronology has not expressly marked the sera of Nimrod's 
rebellion, or of the dispersion of his adherents. But as the 
immediate obje6l of the former was to prevent tlie execution 
of a decree, which appears to have been published at the time 
of the birth of Peleg, we may conclude that it took place soon 
after that event. Nimrod might now be 60 or 65 years old, 
about the same age as Salah, his parallel in descent. If so, 
he was not in early youth, but in the prime qf manhood. — - 
For though the patriarchal age was hitherto of great extent, 
yet it appears that men soon came to maturity. In th-e first 
century after the deluge, they married and had children, 
generally about the age of thirty. 

The Samaritan copy regularly adds 100 years to the age of 
the patriarchs both before and after the flood, at the birth of 
their sons ; so that the birth of Peleg is removed to about 400 
years after the deluge. Many learned men adopt tliis chro- 
nology, because it allows time for an increase of popuIatio?i 
suitable to the great events of his time. 

May I offer a few remarks on this subjedl? 



1 . Down to the death of Noah, Moses regularly gives the 
age of the father, at the birth of such a son, he adds the 
lemaining years of his life, and then sums up the whole. — 
The constant change of this enumeration cannot have hap- 
pened through the mere inadvertency of transcribers. Some 
wilful and systematical corruption must be supposed, either in 
the Hebrew or Samaritan text. 



62 



2. Nothing of the kind has been laid to the charge of the 
Jews. The pious men who revised the sacred books after the 
captivity, certainly used the best copies that w^ere to be found. 
Their transcripts were long preserved. The people after 
this period never relapsed into idolatry. Their numerous 
scribes must have deteded error, and the mutual jealousy of 
their se6i;s exposed corruption. Beside, the lawgiver of the 
house of Judah was under the care of a special providence till 
the Shiloh came, and our reliance upon the authority of the 
scriptures rests, in a great measure, upon the firm belief that 
they have not been wilfully corrupted. 

3. The half pagan Samaritans, who rejected a great part 
of the sacred canon, may be supposed to have taken unwar- 
ranted liberties with the books they retained, in order to 
countenance their heathenish errors. And it was ati error of 
the Heathens that during the second or Silver age men 
remained with their mothers for 100 years, in a state of 
infancy, which was succeeded by a short and infirm period of 
manhood. Hesiod. E^y. xui Uia a. v. 129. How contrary is 
this to the purpose of Providence declared Gen. ix. 1. ? 

4. The ^'eri/ old and grey-headed friends of Job, about the 
time of Abraham, repeatedly speak of men of a former age 
(and whose term of life abundantly exceeded theirs) as still 
existing. This could not have been the case upon the Sama^ 
ritan scheme of chronology ; but upon that of the Hebrew 
text, it was a certain truth. 

5. As the Samaritan copy does not add to the number of 
generations, but only retards die population of mankind, I 
cannot perceive how its chronology would remove the obje6lion 
respe($ling the age of Peleg. If the race was prolific at the 
age of thirty, it must evidently have increased as much in 100 



63 



years as it would have done in 400, supposing men had no 
childien till they were 130. 

6. Observe the patriarchs from Arphaxad to Nahor 
according to the Hebrew text. The variety of their ages when 
they became parents is natural and probable. So, 30, 34, 30, 
32, 30, 29. Whereas the 135, 130, 134, 130, 13£, 130, 129 
of the Samaritan copy presents a monotony unprecedented in 
history, and highly improbable in itself. 

At the age of 60 or 65 Nimrod may have retained as much 
of the fire of youth as would dispose him to undertake a great 
and daring enterprize, and, at the same time, have acquired 
as much of the resolution and decision of manhood, as would 
enable him to persevere in it. At no period of his life could 
he have been better qualified to plan the city and kingdom of 
Babel. Those hardy adventurers, who gathered round him, 
may not indeed have been sufficiently numerous, immediately 
to accomplish the design ; but they may have entered upon it 
with confidence, calculating upon iie long prospedt of their 
own lives, and the assistance of their children, who were 
continually multiplying. 

How far they had proceeded in their enterprize, and 
extended the limits of their kingdom, before the scheme was 
completely ruined, may be a difficult question to decide. 

The opinion that Nin^rod was the builder of Nineveh, and 
the founder of the Assyrian empire, has antiquity on its side, 
and has been generally received. But I recolle<St no authority 
from the old testament which determines this point, and all 
that can be colled ed from heathen authors, respecting an event 
of such remote antiquity ;, may be regarded as doubtful. Even 
here Ninus is represented as marrying not begetting Semirami^ 



64 



■-^taking possession of, not building Babylon. It is clear that 
the Babylonian and Assyrian kingdoms were originally two 
distindl; things. The latter I think had not crossed the 
Hiddekel or Tigris in the time of Moses, that river flovsdng 
i^Dlpj, before, or in front of it_, and not toward the East, as it 
is in our translation. Its boundary then lay at a considerable 
distance from Babylon. 

I am aware that some translators of credit have rendered 
Gen. X. II. to this purpose — ^' And out of that country, he 
[Nimrod] went forth to Ashur, and built Nhieveh, &-c." But 
this seems to be nothing more than forcing the text, in order 
to support a pre-conceived hypothesis; for besides that the 
words require no such interpretation, it is pretty evident from 
the context, and the paragraph in the beginning of chap. xi. 
that Nimrod did not go forth at all out of Babylonia, before 
the catastrophe of his ambition. The children of men were 
still engaged in making themselves a name, and in building 
the city and tower of Babel : they were beginning to do this, 
at the time when the confusion of tongues took place, and it 
■was in consequence of this event thei/ left off to build the city. 
They had been hitherto engaged in the prosecution of their 
original design at Babel, and had not yet completed it. — 
It was there that the Lord confounded their language, and it 
was from thence that he scattered them. The whole of the 
confederate band must have been dispersed. Had a party 
been left behind undisturbed, they would soon have increased 
to a multitude, and might have prosecuted the work at their 
leisure:, whereas on the contrary we are told that the design 
was wholly broken off. And they were not driven from 
Babylonia into Assyria, but dispersed into all the regions of 
the known world. 

It appears then, that Nimrod did not go forth before tlie 



65 



overtlirov/ of bis great enterprize^ and^ if he sui-yived that 
events we cannot suppose him afterwards in a condition to 
build great cities^ and estabhsh a po\^ erful kingdom^ when his 
subjects were now dispersed over the face of the earth. 

It is said indeed^ that ^' The beginning of bis kingdom was 
Babel^ and Erech^ and Accad and Cahreb in the land of 
Shinar;" and it may be asked_, Where was the sequel of his 
l<:ingdom;, if not in Assyria^ namely Nineveh Calah^ Resen^ 
8cc. as it follows in the next verses? But it must be observed^ 
that Nimrod only began a kingdom: he did not complete his 
design. He only bega?i to be a mighty one in the earth. — 
Whatever meaning we attach to the word began or beginning, 
in one of these clauses^ must be equally applicable to the 
other. 

I cannot but subscribe to the opinion of a most eminent 
w^riter of the present age, that Ashur who went forth out of 
the country of Shinar and built Nineveh, and actually 
founded the Assyrian kingdom, which, in time, extended 
itself into a vast empire, was the son of Shem of that name. — • 
The land which Nimrod occupied was evident^ in the midst 
of the portion of Shem. His other sons settled about the 
Tigris and Euphrates. Some short time after the general par- 
tition, Ashur may have begun to take possession of his lot, 
amongst his brethren ; but finding the country occupied by 
such powerful intruders, he may have been compelled to give 
way and fortify himself at a distance. If so, Nineveh was not 
built, nor the Assyrian empire founded bj/ Nimrod, but 
rather because of Nimrod. 

The Assyrians, in after ages, extended their empire over 
Babylonia, and rebuilt, or enlarged ^nd beautified the city of 
Confusion ; but the nation which they found there, and which 

45 



66 



Still continued to inhabit the province, is always distingiushed 
by sacred and profane authors from the proper Assyrians. 

Some faint vestiges of the history of this people^ may per- 
haps guide us to the sera of the confusion and dispersion of 
the rebellious band. But let us first consider who they were. 

I am aware of an opinion which has been formed by a 
writer of the first eminence, from tlieir local situation, and 
from circumstances^ that Chus was the head of this family, 
and Nimrod their first king. 

But w^hen it is recolle6led how generally the Chaldeans 
liave been claimed and admitted as the real ancestors of the 
Jewish nation, and that their descent from the house of Ham 
rests entirely upon circumstantial proof, I hope I may be 
pardoned for withholding my assent to this opinion. 

May we not gather from circumstances equally strong, that 
they w ere the genuine descendants of Shem, by the line of 
Arphaxad, and that they were not implicated in the confe- 
deracy under Nimrod, but preserved themselves a distinci: 
people from the days of Peleg, when the earth was first 
divided ? 

It is admitted, upon all hands that, in the early ages, 
those names of men by which they w^ere distinguished in 
history were relative or descriptive terms. They alluded to 
some peculiar situation, or some prominent circumstance, 
.relating to the persons who bore them, or to their famil3\ — 
They were not always the names which had been given in a 
state of infancy. Abraham, Sarah, and Israel are instances 
of the contrary. ^lay we not then be permitted to make some 
use of historical names, where historical ddail is wanting? It 



07 

is gi'antcd that some of these titles^ though they were histo- 
rical and relative, may admit of various interpretations, and 
that it is not easy, in all cases, to point out their precise 
meaning. The occasion of them is sometimes forgotten, and 
they are couched in a language that is not entirely preserved. 
But others are sufficiently clear, and we must he content to 
let the strong support the weak. 

One of the sons of Heber was named Peleg, because in his 
days the earth was divided, or as it is elsewhere expressed. 
The, Most High divided to the nations their inheritance. This 
division must have taken place at the time of Peleg's birth, 
for at no other period of his life can we conceive how he 
should have acquired a name from this circumstance. Peleg 
could not then have been at the head of a colony. In facft, 
we find he was not. Tlie chief of the family was his father 
Heber, who communicated a general name to all tlie 
Hebrews, or to several nations of his descendants. 

The name of Heber signifies. To cross oveT, or simply The 
opposite side. This name he seems to have acquired from the 
circumstance of his crossing over, with his family, to the East 
side of the Euphrates, from the tumultuous assembly of 
Nimrod, who had seated themselves on the Western bank 
where old Babylon is supposed to have stood. It is clear that 
the family; of Heber dwelt on the East side of the Euphrates, 
in a narrow part of the country, betvveen that river and the 
Tigris, and as Shem is said to be the father of all the 
children of Heber, or The other side, it should seem that none 
but his descendants removed thither or remained there. The 
first acquisition, which we read of, to the family of Heber 
was Pceu, the son of Peleg. This name is interpreted by 
some A Friend or near nciglibour. Heber may have con- 
trasted his own litUe society ^^ith the hostile rout beyond i\^e 



68 



flood, and called them his friends or neighbours,, and the 
land where he dwelt The land of Friendsj or Friendland' 
In allusion to this circumstance, Peleg may have regarded 
his eldest son, as one added to the society of friends. 

But as the name may import A Shepherd or Feeder of 
Cattle, and as the Hebrews, whether in Mesopotamia, in the 
land of Canaan, or in Egypt, made pasturage their peculiar 
occupation, I conjedlure that this is the meaning intended by 
the name of lj;n, and that it intimates that the Hebrews 
immediately applied themselves to rural employments, and 
not to the building of cities. By his Greek name Vuyuv, this 
son of Peleg claims the country about the Tigris and Eu- 
phrates, Ev TOK Optoig Payay. Judith i. 

It is then pretty clear, that the family of Heber did not 
enrol itself under the banners of Nimrod, or assist him in the 
building of Babel and the other cities which constituted his 
kingdom. Neither did this family withdraw itself to a great 
distance, like that of Ashur. The Hebrews merely stepped 
out of the way, and occupied the country beyond the stream. 

But in this country they were certainly the principal people. 
Beu or Ragau's name was communicated to the territory.— 
Both himself and his relations must then have been in pos- 
session of it. They must have maintained such possession, 
for his nanle continued there. And he left it to his posterity, 
for Ragau himself survived the birth of Abraham about 18 
years, and we find that . C/r, the centre of Chaldea, was the 
land of Abraham's nativity — there was his own country, his 
kindred and his father's house. 

When Abraham and Lot removed to Padan-Aram, still 
within the borders of Ragau, to a city which appears, by itg-^ 



69 

several names^, to have belonged to Lot's father, and Abraham's 
gi'andfather^ and was therefore part of the famiiy estate; 
Nahor^ Abraham's elder brother^ still continued at Lr of the 
Chaldees^ his paternal home. Some of his children seem to 
have remained there after him^, v.hilst others spread themselves 
over Padan-Aram^ liigher up bet\^'een the streams^ and still 
within the borders of Ragau. It is absolutely evident that the 
farhil}^ of Heber did not reside in these countries^ as depen- 
dants on any other famiiy. 

Nahor was undoubtedly King of Chaldea and Padan-Aram.- 
His consort is known to us simply by the name of n^/D, 
Milcah or the Queen. Amongst the children of Nahor and 
this Queen_, we find l^i^D Chesed^, the Chaldean, the founder 
or chief of that distinct family, and ^«iDp Kemuel, Established 
of God J the father of Aram, Patriarch or Prince of that 
Tiation which inhabited Padan-Aram, Aram Naharaim, or the 
rich and extensive country of ^Mesopotamia. 

Laban the son of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, dwelt in this 
country, in the city of Haran, which is also called the city of 
Nahor, and amongst his bjethren, whom he convoked upon 
the flight of Jacob. He had pastures of three days jom'ney in 
extent, not in a strange land as a sojourner, but in his own 
land and that of his brethren. This Laban, in consequence 
of his belonging to the family ofKemuel, and of his residence 
in Padan-Aram is called >D")K the Aramitc. I think it ought 
not to be translated Spian, as by this term we generally un- 
derstand an inhabitant of Syria proper, and a descendant of 
Aram the sou of Shem. 

We may hence perceive the greatness of the sacrifice which 
Abraham made to his faith, when he went out from his own 
land, not knowing whither he went^ and became ix 

E 3 



70 

sojourner, dwelling in tabernacles iu a strange country. He 
submitted to a condition very different from that to which he 
was born. Yet we find this patriarch's high rank duly ac- 
knowledged by the Canaanites themselves. He is styled My 
JLordy and a Mighty Prince , even by the Princes of the 
'Country, though he was but a stranger amongst them, and 
possessed not a foot of land. Kings go forth to meet him, 
attended by the first officers of their state, honour him as their 
equal in dignity, and conclude solemn treaties with him. 

It cannot be urged in obje61;ion, that the family of Heber, 
as friends and associates of another people, who may be 
regarded as the proper Chaldeans, may have enjoyed peculiar 
immunities and privileges, and even have been included in 
the national name. 

Whatever the title T<D'2 or ^^^v^ niay have originally im- 
ported, I tbink it can have nothmg at all to do with Cush 
the son of Ham. It belongs exclusively to the line of Ar- 
phaxad, whose own name is a compound of t<D") and "iii>D, and 
seems to imply a Healer or Restorer of "lii^D. It may have 
superseded the former name Cainan, which is retained in the 
Septuagint version, and therefore be nothing more than an 
epithet, wdiich this patriardi acquired in the days of Iris 
manhood. 

As Nahor was about 60 years older than Abraham, liis son 
Chesed may have been about the same age as his uncle. The 
general opinion that this Chesod was the chief of the distin6l 
family of the Chaldeans, acquires great support from hi? 
name, exa6lly copied from that of his great ancestor, who 
was still living at his birth, and exac^tly preserved in the 
Gentile name of the- Chaldeans, the inhabitants of pait of 
Kahor's kingdom. Why should this son be emphatically 



71 

styled the Chaldean, unless it was becan^ Chaldea was his 
* share, in the distribution of Nahor's inheritance among his 
children ? Those relations and descendants of Nahor who 
continued in this district, retained the name of DHDDj, while 
those who settled in the portion of Kemuel, the father or 
prince of Aram^ obtained that of D'D^K. 

It appears to me that these Clia]deans_, after the dispersion 
af Nimrod^s parti/ y and the overthrow of his kingdom, extended 
themselves over Bab3donia. Hence authors derive the family 
of the Jews,, sometimes from the Babylonians_, and ^ometime?^ 
from ihe Chaldeans. 

Semiramis is a well-known mythological name of Babylon : 
And Steph. Byzant. V. Uv^aia,, informs us from Alexander 
Polyhistor, that the Jews and Idumeans or Edoraites were 
descended from the children of Semiramis. They were not 
descended from the first founders of Babylon; but from a 
people who were very early in possession of it: perhaps lon^ 
before the birth of Chesed. 

The author of the book, De Mundo, which is ascribed to 
Philo, equally derives the race and the learning of the Jews 
from the ancient Chaldeans. All this coincides with the testimo- 
nies of Moses and Joshua, and with the express declaration,, 
Judith V. 6. that the Jews were of the race of the Chaldeans. 
We learn from the two next verses, that some branches of the 
Chaldeans, or house of Ileber, reje6led the coiTupt worship of 
their fathers, and removed into Mesopotamia, which they go^ 
verned for a long time. The more numerous branches, which 
still continued in their native country, w ere so far from wishing 
to detain them, that they thrust them forth from the presence 
of their gods. 

The ancient Chaldeans theu were not descendants of Ham. 



72 

The}' were the children of Shem and of Arphaxad, and the 
genuine ancestors of the Jewish nation. 

These were the people who possessed that part of Chaldea, 
which lay between the rivers^ from the time of the general 
allotment in the days of Peleg; who afterwards^ upon the 
destruction of Nimrod's kingdom^ began to extend their 
doininion over Babylonia-, and held it for many ages_, till it 
was incorporated with the growing empire of Ashur. And 
these were the people who raised the fame of Babylon to such 
eminence in the annals of ancient lore. 

Whether this celebrated city was part of their intended 
patrimon}^ or not_, they seem to have been put in peaceable 
possession of it_, in the days of Arphaxad, the restorer of the 

The names of the descendants of Shem_, in the line down to 
Abraham^ are evidently descriptive of the successive conditions 
of the Chaldean family. As it is probable that the precise 
meanino' of these names is not alwavs to be obtained from the 
Hebrew diale6t^ I could wish to see it investigated by a good 
general orientalist^ a chara6ter to which I have no pretension. 
On die present occasion, I must content myself with setting 
them down in their order^ together with those derivations and 
interpretations which are usually given, and adding a few 
conjeclures. 

*li:>r)D^K Arphaxad, from KD"1 He healed, repaired, restored, 
consolidated, 3, an adverb of similitude, and Td! Devastation. 

But as nWD thus derived, is not hkcly to have formed the 
name of a great people, may it not imply d according to, H'kiV 
the Almighty^ the Disposer: intimating that they were the 



73 



true possessors of the land by Divine appointiAent ? Or else^ 
it may come from d about^ and nii^N or iw the Stream, so as 
to be descriptive of their local situation. 

The initial ^? in Arphaxad^ forms the first person future, 
perhaps intimating that the name arose from a declaration 
made by this patriarch — ^^ I will heal the true possessors — or 
— the dwellers about the stream," 

Li the story of Judith^ the same name is given to a king of 
the jNiedes,, probably in allusion to the history of Arphaxad; 
as we find this prince had entered upon a similar design — ^^to 

liberate the Chaldeans from under the Assyrian yoke. 

nbuf, Salah_, He shot or c«st; sent forth, sent awaj^; a 
dart, a missile weapon. 

^Ti'J, Heber, he passed over; The opposite side. :i^D Peleg, 
He divided ; a stream. 

1^% Reu^ Ragau, from n^^l He united; fed; a friend: 
Perhaps rather, A Shepherd, or feeder of flocks — the same 
as nj/i. 

:i)^]V, Serug, from :int:* to be wreathed, twisted; a weak or 
tender branch. 



^rrrD Nahor : '^ it has some affinity to. the Chald. root "T-in 
to liberate or set free/' — G. Pasor. Perhaps its meaning may 
be intimated in the Heb. nrri, >nnn3. Snorting, as of a war- 
horse^ enraged and exulting. Job xxxix. £0. Jer./viii. 16^ 

n"in Terah, from m^ Is spacious, refreshed; space, 
interstice, distance., breath, spirit. 



- ' 74 ■ 

May I not be allovy-ed to infer from this series that^ about 
the time of lieu's birth, Heber, who had passed over, or who 
occupied the opposite side of the stream, had collected his 
friends and relatives in social niiion; or else, that the Hebrews 
had already betaken themselves to tlie peaceful occupation of 
shepherds — that about the time when Serug was born, Nimrod 
was extending his kingdom on both sides of the EuphrateSj 
and building Erech and Accad and Calneh, tlie outposts of 
his great city, and that, in consequence of this, th^ Hebrews 
jiO\Y hegdLa to he perplexed, weak, and affli6ied? 

This must have been the time for Arphaxad, the great 
patriarch of the Hebrew family, to begin to exert himself — to 
form that resolution, make that declaration, and undertake 
that enterprize which gave him the name of the Restorer or 

healer of the D^TiTD. 

This design he may have carried into efle(5i:, by forming a 
confederac}^ with liis brethren, and attacking tiie subjects of 
ISimrod in open war. And it is pretty clear, from some 
allusions to this event, in the old testament, as well as from 
the general language of mythology, that the confusion of 
tongues was not the only means employed for the breaking 
up of the rebelhous kingdom. The Lord confounded their 
language, and the?/ left off to build the city: and then, the 
XiOrd scattered them from thence. 

In other passages of scripture, the Lord is said to have 
scattered his enemies, when he discomfitted them before the 
armies of his servants. The same external means seems to 
have been employed upon this occasion, accompanied perhaps 
with an awful confli6l of the elements. It was in war that 
the Gods and sons of the Gods scattered the Giants, from the 
heap they were raising, or buried them under its ruins. 



The subjeds of Nimrocl included a great proportion of the 
liuman race. The}^ were strong and they were confident. — 
How greatly must their strength have been reduced, and their 
confidence damped, at the approach of battle, when an evil 
conscience, awakened by the voice of thunder, shook their 
inmost frames, and a supernatural panic convulsed the organs 
of speech, so that they could utter only nnformed sounds, and 
communicate no idea to their comrades, but the general im- 
pression of horror and dismay ! 

Sal ah, the son of Arphaxad, as his name imports, must 
have been an adth-e warrior: and he was probably instrumental 
in liberating the affiicied Hebrews, or in pouring forth the 
torrent of indignation, about the time of the elder Nahor's 
birth,, and m expelling the children of men from Babel, about 
90 years after their great rebellion. They had already been 
thei'e no inconsiderable time, if we recollecl that they had not 
yet lost sight of their original design, that they had hitherto 
been emploj^ed in building the city, that tliey were but 
beginning to do this, and that the city -which they were 
beginning to build must not be rnistalien for Babylon the 
Great, such as it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. 

The early, overthrow of Nimrod's power may be inferred 
ii'om other circumstances. jN'loses names the ISoachidai who 
divided the land, jJfter their nations. In other words, he 
records only the names of the nadons they respectively 
planted. It should then seem that the house of Heber, after 
an interval of two or three generations, or about the space of 
a century, (by the scale in Gen. xi.) gained an ascendency 
over the house of Cush. In the 4th degree from Noah we 
find, j<3D and nbnn Seba and Havila, sons of Cush, and in 
the 5th ^^"2"^ bheba, his grandson; but in the 7th degree, 
Sheba and HaviJa occur amonast tlie G:randsons of Heber. — 



76 

^lay we not infer that tins family gained possession of the 
land which the others had occupied? 

The Schohast upon ApolL Argonaut. L, iv. v. 320, remarks 
that Timonax (an old historian) in his first hook U-^i ^Kv%y, 
reckons 50 different nations of Scythae, The name then does 
not belong to a captain faniil}-,, but to a certain description of 
people who were dispersed over various regions. 

St. Epiphanius says that tlie people who went under the 
general name of ScythaB were those who erected the tower^ 
and built Babel. Advers. Haes. p. 6. 

He adds that Scythism^ or the dominion of this people^ 
extended only to the time of Sei'ug, and that from Seiiig to 
Abraham^ and from thence to his own time^ Hellenism ov 
gentihsm prevailed. 76. p. 9. 

The declension of this kingdom may again be inferred from 
the early aggrandizement of another family in the neigh- 
bourhood. About 300 years afcev the birth of Peleg, the king 
of Elam^ or the South of Persia^ peopled by the house of 
Shem, was the Great King. The kings of Shinar^ Eilaser, 
and certain other nations were his allies^ and probably his 
tributaries. 

Tlie branches of his throne, passing direc^l}'' over Shinafj 
extended 1000 miles to the West, into Arabia, Idumea and 
Canaan, where he had vassal princes, of the race of the 
dispersed Giants, whose rebellion he chastized, and whom . 
either himself or his father must, in the first instance, have 
awed by authority, or reduced by force. 

A monarchy thus powerful could not have sprung up at^ 



■ n 

once; it must have taken deep root in the ''^.ast before it coiiW 
acquire sufficient i^rmness to bear down the weight of it^ 
adversaries^ and it must have passed the Tigris and Euphrates 
some time before it could reach the banks of Jordan. The 
house of Shem had then prevailed over that of Cush, before 
the days of Abraham. 

It may be a question of some importance whether tbe Eastern 
princes called TK-sns or Shepherd Kings who, according to 
Dr. Hales, Orient. Coll, v. iii. No. 2. began to govern Egypt 
511 years before the Exode of the Israelites, were not the 
S^ti'aps of the Elamite. Jerusalem which they are said to have 
built was very near, if not within, the provinces of Che- 
dorlaomer, 

Egypt was governed by a Shepherd about 430 years before 
the Exode. The king entreated Abraham well, and gave him 
Sheepy and Oxe7i, and He asses, and She asses and Camels. — ■ 
Gen. xii. Kings display their munificence by bestowing 
estimable things, such as constitute the riches of their country. 

Before the descent of Jacob, some great revolution had 
taken place in the minds of the Egyptians. At that time they 
held shephej-ds in abomination. Perhaps they resented the ilb 
they had lately suffered from them. 

The ancient books of the Hindus, have something very 
curious upon this subject. From the learned tj-act O/i Egypty 
by Lieut. Wilford. Asiat. Res. v. 3. Lond. Edit. 1801.. I 
extract tlie following particulars. 

*' It is related in the Padma-Puran, that Satyavrata, wdiose 
miraculous preservation from a general deluge is told at length, 
ia the Matsya^ had three sons^ the eldest of whom was named 



• 78 

Jj^apeti;, or Lord of^Iie Earth. The others were C'liarma and 
Sharma, which last words are, in the vulgar dialedls, usually 
pronounced Cham and Sham; as we frequently hear Kishn 
for Crishna. The royal patriarchy for such is his character in 
the Purans^ was particularly fond of Jyapetij, to whom he 
gave all the regions to the North of Himalaya^ or the Snowy 
Mountains, which extend from sea to sea, and of v/hich 
Caucasus is a part. To Sharma he allotted the countries to 
the South of these mountains. Bat he cursed C'harma ; because, 
"when the old monarch v/as accidentally inebritited with a 
strong liquor made of ferme'nted rice, C'harma laughed ; and 
it was in consequence of his father's imprecation that he 
iDCcarae a slave to the slaves of his brothers/' p. 312, 

'■'■ C'harma having laughed at his father — was nick-named 
Hasyasila, or the Laugher ; and his descendants were called 
from him liasyasilas in Sanscrit — By these descendants of 
C'haraia they understand the African Negroes, whom they 
suppose to have been the first inhabitants of Abyssinia, and 
they place Al)yssinia partly in the Dwipa ,(oi' country) of 
CusHA." p. 330. 

We may colle6i: from a variety of circumstances, that 
Ciisha Dwip w'ithin) extends from the shore of the Mediter- 
ranean, and the mouths of the Nile, to Serhind, on the borders 
of India, p. 301. 

Cusha-dwipa without is Abyssinia and Ethiopia: and the 
Brahmens account plausibly enough for its name, by asserting, 
that the descendants of CusiiA bein<r oblis^ed to leave their 
native country^ from them called Cz^sA«-dwipa witinn, 
migrated into Sanc'ha-dvv^ip, and gave to their new settlement 
the name of their ancestor, p. 302. 



79 

All this remarkably coincides witb the Mosaic lustory, and - 
with the general opinion of Europe respeding the allotments 
of the Noachidae. By the geography of Cusha-dwip zcithiny 
it is evident that Cusha was no other than the Cush of IMoses^ 
the son of the mocker. The Brahmens finding him originally 
settled in the portion of Sharma or Shem, seem to have 
mistaken him for a descendant of that patriarchy whose 
posterity they represent as emigrating into Egypt. Abyssinia 
and Ethiopia^ after the building of Padmamandira on the 
banks of the river Cumudvate, or the tower of Babel on the 
Euphrates. Seep. 31 1^ 313. 

They were acquainted with the portion of Shem and the 
doom of Ham^ but they had forgotten that the latter seized 
upon the portion of the former, which he was afterwards 
©bliged to relinquish. 

Not only the name of Cush^, but also that of his son Sheba. 
seems to have passed into Abyssinia. We learn from Bruce, 
that the Abyssinians positively claim the queen of Sheba (who 
visited Solomon) as their sovereign. But to return- 
Moses speaks of the whole enterprize of the children of 
men_, as a design which was ruined almost in embryo. Its fall 
could not then have been protra6led long after the birth o^ 
the elder Nahor. 

Arphaxad was at this time 19 1 years old, Salah 156, 
Hcber 126, Peleg 92, Reu 62, and Serug 30, They may all 
have taken an adive part in the Titanian war, and in the 
complete liberation of their friends, about the close of the 
second century after the flood. 

From henceforth; the interpretation of names furnishe;^ no 



80 



bint^ respedling the oppression or perplexity of tbe family of 
Heber. In Terah's time they had been enlarged and hreaihed 
freely. They began to give their children princely names, 
indicating their great prosperity. Of the daughters of Haran, 
one was ]Milcah_, the Queen, and tbe other was Sarai, the 
Princess, The cities^ the regions^ and the nations were called 
by their own names. How exalted must have been the ideas 
of aggrandizement in this family^ when they blessed the female 
branches^ saying — " Thou art our sister — be thou the mother 
of Thousands of Millions ! and let thy seed possess the gates 

of those which hate them!" Gen. xxiv. 60. An allusion 

to their form<^r triumphs. 

The posterity of Arphaxad having been thus early invested 
with the peaceable possession of the rich territory of Padan- 
Aranij and more particularly of Chaldea, must be the people 
to whom We ought to ascribe all the ancient renown of the 
Chaldean nation. To them must be referred the learning of 
the Babylonians^ whether they themselves owed it to the 
search of then- fathers, or to their own genius and application. 

■ They cannot have been indebted for their arts and sciences, 
to the giants of Babel, who were scattered abroad, before they 
had time to make any great improvements in science, had 
they been so disposed. And they were dispersed with cir- 
cumstances too humiliating to have commanded respe6l, or 
enabled them to enforce or recommend their lessons. 

But of the disposition of these apostates for extending 
science, we have very little information : unless a profession 
of magic and sorcery be dignified by the name of science. If 
they could fairly pretend to any merit in the pursuit of useful 
knowledge, it is certain that books and tradition have been 
€(^ually injurious to their nieinory. 



81 



The old poets and historians^ upon almost every occasion^ 
shew a propensity to espouse the opposite party. The poems 
of the Greeks^ their poetic histories,, the Eddas of the Goths^ 
the legends of Persia and India^ the traditions of the Britons, 
and even the tales of the Greenlanders describe these giants so 
much alike, that it is evident they all drew from one original, 
and that their strokes are copied from" nature. 

This remarkable concurrence of evidence, from times and 
places so remote from each other, carries all the force of truth. 
Universal tradition must be referred to some universal circum- 
stance or event. And the traditions respecting the deluge are 
not more uniform or more general, than those which regard 
the giants. All ancient nations acknowledge their acquain- 
tance with such a race. They intruded into the recesses of 
their country, they lurked amongst their caves, their forests, 
their rocks and their desolate places, pradising sorcery and 
diabolical arts, exercising all manner of violence, and so fierce 
and savage, that it was a matter of indiiference to them 
whether they feasted upon a sheep or a man. But I know of 
no nation whioh boasts of them as its ancestors. 

This is a general feature in ancient tradition, and worthy of 
remark. All people claim the family that was preserved at 
the deluge as their own peculiar ancestors, and the founders 
of their nation ; but the giants are always detested strangers, 
with whom they never chose to have any conne6lion. Some 
Greek writer indeed makes Orpheus the Thracian call them 
H/A£Te^wi» oT^oyom weiT^qm ; but it is probable the TltraCJiian himself 
would have been more shy of his ancestors. 

The Greeks, in like xnanner, compliment the Celta? with 
their descent from the giants; but the Celtae themselves, 
while they acknowledge that such a race dwelt amongst them; 



82 



strenuously maintain that they were distindl from the real 
founders of their pStion. 

Were not these giants a people which j\^ere scattered into 
all lands, whether desolate, or occupied by a more orderly 
race of inhabitants ? In the former situation/ their peculiar 
traits became permanent:; in the latter, they were lost by 
admixture. 

There is scarcely a trait in their charadler which either 
sacred or profane histoiy, or popular tradition, vouchsafes to 
record, but their pride, their impiety, their violence, their 
barbarity, their total overthrow, their dispersion, and their 
final extincStion. 

Yes, their great size, and consequently their superior 
strength, are additional traits which generally enter into the 
pidlure ; and these perhaps may be agreeable to nature and 
to truth. 

It cannot indeed be supposed, that the associates of Nimrod 
were originally either larger or stronger than the generality of 
men in that age. But in a society which regarded the preva- 
lence of force as the supreme law, a superior degree of bodily 
strength would create a distindion of rank, and must there- 
fore have been a desirable objed. He that was possessed of 
this qualification, would, of course, be constituted the leader 
of a band. The most ready means of perpetuating such a 
distinaion, amongst his children, must have been to selec% 
for his consort, the stoutest and most robust of the females. — 
Sucb a choice frequently repeated could not fail of producing, 
in the human race, the same eife6l which experience as 
certains in the brute creation. It would gradually enlarge 
ajid stren<;then the breed. 



83 



What we r^ad of the ancient Gennans sufficiently proves^ 
that the art of personal aggrandizement is not chimerical. 

The hero may indeed have had motives, to determine him 
in his choice, nearer home, than regard to his posterity. Tiie 
brave exertions of the Heroine would be of great weight to 
maintain his cause in the courts of violence. 

In societies thus constituted, the more feeble of each sex 
would be discarded as the dregs of the people. INo choice 

would be left them, but to intermarry with their equals 

Hence, perhaps the race of dwarfs, which tra,dition constantly 
places amongst the dweihngs of the giants. 

Had the Giants of Babel amassed any valuable store of 
knowledge, it is difficult to say how it could have been 
preserved at their dispersion, or communicated afterwards. — • 
Their language was so confounded that they could not under- 
stand each other's speech. They could not therefore express 
themselves in the language they had previously used. If they 
had possessed traditional poems, they could not now recite 
them. If they had WTitten documents, they were no longer 
in a condition to read them. They could not converse at all 
with those whose speech had not been confounded, nor with 
such clans amongst their late associates^ as had acquired a 
jargon different from their owri. 

Sanchoniathon, speaking of those people w^ho were dis- 
persed from Babel, says, '^ These are the people who are 
described as Exiles and Wander ers, and at the same time are 
culled the Titans,— Emeh, P. E. L. i. 

Their real situation, after the dispersion, appears to be de- 
scribed in some passages of the book of Job j one of these I 
shall quote at length. 



84 



Tliis righteous man^ Chap. xxx. dehneates the condition of 
the Fathers of a race of men who were his contemporaries-. 
He alhides to some great and well known event in early 
histoiy. All the circumstances of the description can surely 
apply to nothing else than the Exiles and Wanderers from 
Babel. 

-^ " Now they that are younger than I have me in 

derision- — whose Fathers I would have disclaimed to set 
with the dogs of my flock. Yea whereunto might the 
Strength of their Hands [Gigantic force] profit me, 
in whom Old age [the wisdom of the ancients] was 
PERISHED ! For want and famine they were solitary; Jieeing 
into the wilderness^ in former time desolate and waste. Who 
cut up mallows by the bushes^ and juniper roots for their 
meat. They were driven forth from among men (they cried 
after them as after a thief) to dwell in Cliffs of the Vallies, 
in Caves of the earth and in the Rocks. Among the bushes 
they Brayed, under the nettles they were gathered together. 
Theif were children of Fools [impious sinners] yea, children 
of base men; they were viler than the earth." [Unworthy of 
the land.] 

Here w^e have a complete pi6lure of savage life, and the 
true history of its origin, amongst the children of fools, who 
were driven out from men, to dwell in the wilderness, in cliffs, 
in caves and amongst the rocks — who, instead of speaking like 
human beings, only brayed like asses, and could boast of 7io 
desirable quality, but superior strength of hand. They are not 
described as comprehending the whole, but a contemptible 
part of the human race. Their language had been debased in 
a manner which the language of other men had not: for in 
comparison with this, their words resembled only the vocife- 
rations of a brute. Though the Fathers, or first exiles had 



85 



fied to the wilderness, or hid themselves in caves^ and amongst 
tlie rocks and woods, yet their posterity y in the time of Job^ 
had begun to assume some confidence, and to associate with 
mankind ; but they were still regarded as objed:s of scorn and 
detestation. 

These Fathers were undoubtedly the rebellious and van? 
quished giants, whose features are exadtly recognized in tlie 
poetry of the Greeks and Romans, and in the tales and 
traditions of all primitive nations, amongst whom they were 
scattered abroad, as universal monuments of the punishment 
of pride and disobedience. To such hordes of savages, whether 
they continued to wander in the desarts, or were gathered 
together in little bands, and spotted the face of the earth with 
their cities and their kingdoms, we cannot surely ascribe the 
primitive traditions, the learning and the knowledge of the 
nations. Had the tale been told bif themselves, they could not 
have told it, in every country, so much to their own disad- 
vantage. They were not then the depositories nor the 
recorders of useful knowledge. 

Even the gentile systems of religion and morality, corrupt 
and deformed as they were, in the late ages of histor^^, still 
retained traces of something too pure and priiT-itive to have 
been taught by the Titans. The heathen world in general 
had indeed grown vain in their imaginations, and their foolish 
heart was darkened ; but it was darkened by degrees. They 
had changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an 
image made like to corruptible man, and had became so gross 
in their ideas, as to worship and serve the creature more than 
the Creator, who is blessed for ever, \ et, in some measure, 
they 'knew God, in some measure, the}- glorified him, though 
not worthily, or as God. There were few so profane as to 
say to the Ahnight}-, with the giants before and aftej: 

F 3 



86 



the floodj ^^ Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge 
of thy ways;" or ^^ What is the Almighty that we should sei'Ve 
him^ and what profit shall we have if we pray to him r" 

Let ns take the pi6lm-e from the fair side, which, in this 
case, ought to be done, and we shall find that, amongst the 
heathens of Greece and Rome, there were men who under- 
stood and respe^ied many of the fundamental principles of 
religion and morality. There were men who, through the 
mist of allegorical characters and popular superstition, per- 
ceived the supremacy of one omnipotent and universal God, 
the iover and rewarder of virtue; the superintend an ce of a 
Divine Providence, and the diiference of good and evil, both 
in their nature and their consequences. 

The religion of the heathens had not then the appearance 
of having sprung wholly from sudden, wilful and daring 
innovation, like that of the Titans, or of Mahomet. It may 
have been mqre or less contaminated by the homd rites and 
impure practices of the apostate race, in proportion as the 
offspring of the giants mixed more or less, with the inhabitants 
of certain countries. But, in general, the superstition of most 
nations must have sprung from the same kind of gradual 
corruptions of the primitive religion, as produced the present 
Roman Catholic and Greek Church, from the pure fountain 
of the Christian Rehgion, 

The primitive nations delivered their sacred do(5lrines in 
mysterious allegories. They liad emblems and representations 
of the Divine Being, considered in Ins relative characters. 
We are not expressly informed that such representations had 
been forbidden, before the giving of the Law upon Mount 
Sinai. In the early ages of society, they may have been 
deemed innocent and usetiil means of instrudion. They grew 



87 

by degrees into gross abuse, till at last the populace began, 
under every relative symbol, to imagine a distin6t God. The 
phaenomena of nature were also represented by figures which, 
in time, were confounded with the sacred symbols. Add to 
this that antiquity treated the persons and the memory of 
superiors with the highest veneration and resped. So far 
their sentiments and practice were laudable. But they also 
distinguished their ancestors and princes by epithets which 
were equally applied to the Supreme Being; such as. The 
Grtat Father, Tlie Rultr, The Supreme, The Lofty One: 
perhaps they confeiTed upon them still higher titles ; for, in 
the Old Testament we find such names as Godsy Sons of God, 
Sons of the Most Highy given to human beings. The precise 
ideas originally intended by these terms, when so appUed, in 
time became confused; and men began to regard those w^ho 
had been honoured with them, as dignified with a sacred 
characler, and endowed with a superior nature. 

Just so, the respedl which was once paid to the memory of 
the saints and martyrs, and the preservation of their picitures 
and statues, were far removed from superstition and idolatry: 
but now, for many ages, men have ascribed to the same 
saints an absolute ubiquity, an incommunicable attribute of 
the Deity. They have invoked them in their prayers, and 
bowed down before their images. 



88 



VII. 



The remains of one Language Whether the Hehxw he 

the primitive Language, 



B 



'UT in whatever degree the siibje<5ls of Nimrod may have 
Gontributed to the corrupting of the primitive rehgion of 
mankind;, we cannot surely ascribe to them the introdu6i;ion 
of those numerous terms^ both sacred and profane^ which 
diffused themselves amongst a great variety of nations^ pre- 
serving every where,, either a striking similarity or an abso- 
lute identity of sound and sense. They cannot surely have 
been the authors of that general analogy which has been 
remarked and demonstrated, between the principles of all 
ancient languages. 

It is more reasonable to suppose, that these things are the 
remains of the one language of the whole earth; which was 
best preserved by the obedient famiUes. And that centre of 
union which is frequently traced to ihe venerable language of 
the Pentateuch confirms the supposition. 

An identity of terms and principles could not have beea 
communicated to the several nations, by that people who 
peculiarly lost the primitive language, and who retained not, 
the use of one language amongst themselves. 

That there are evident vestiges of such identity, has been 
abundantly proved. We can scarcely open a book, upon any 
learned subjed;; in which tliey do not present themselves. 



89 

Such instances have furnished employment to numerous 
philologists, who have taken gi-eat pains to shew how the 
terms and idioms of one language are borrowed from those of 
another; as the English from the French, the French from 
the Latin, the Latin from the Greek, the Greek from the 
Phoenician or Egyptian, and perhaps these from the old 
Chaldaic. 

Were our ideas respecling the first settlement of the nations, 
and the nature of the universal language of Noah, more 
precise and consistent, it is probable that much of this affinity 
would be acknowledged to have existed in the original diale6ls 
of the respe6live countries and families, and to be immediately 
referable to theii* common source. 

That the language of Noah, which, for upwards of sixteen 
centuries, had kept pace with the numerous discoveries, rapid 
improvements, and expanding range of ideas, in the primitive 
world, cannot have been a rude and barren jargon, we have 
every reason to believe. Its compass must have been great, 
its principles duly ascertained, and its laws fixed and acknow- 
ledged. But as no language has retained the name of the 
Noachic or primitive, great doubts have arisen respecting it. 

The opinion most generally received is that which we have 
adopted from the Jews, namely, that the Hebrew language, 
in the state in which it is preserved in the Old Testament, was 
not only the language of Noah, but also of Adam. If this 
opinion be just, all further enquiry respecting the primitive 
giate of language must be nugatory and vain. 

Of this language, the learned Parkhurst (Pref. to the Heb. 
Lex.) pronounces as follows; 



90 

" The Hebrew language is the most simple and determinate^ 
the most easy and natm'al of any that was spoken in the world* 
And what wonder, since it was certainly framed immediately 
by HIM^ who not only formed the hearty and ear, and 
tongue of man, but also made the heavens and the earthy and 
all things therein ?" 

I am sensible that a subjedl which connects itself with such 
ideas of sacredness, in the minds of many of the most pious, 
learned, and respedable chara6lers, ought to be discussed 
with great delicacy and caution. But may I not venture to 
hint without risking the imputation of sacrilege, or injuring 
the charadler of this most important language, that some 
erroneous conceptions respe6ling it have been long en- 
tertained I 

The very ingenious gentleman, whose words I have quoted 
above^ lias detected and exposed many such conceptions. 

It has been his labour to remove our superstitious preconcep- 
tions in favour of the Masoretic points — to dissipate the 
deceitful mist of Rabbinic prejudices — to introduce a new and 
rational division of the roots — and to shew that each Hebrew 
root has but one leading idea or meaning, taken from nature by 
our senses or feelings, zchich runs through all the branches and 
vtfledions ofitj however numerous or diversijied. 

Is it absolutely certain that none of the said mists of pre- 
judice still hang about the subjed^ and that we do not still 
entertain some notions respecting the Hebrew language, which 
are either erroneously conceived or weakly supported ? 

When I consider the leading ideas into which many of the 
jroots are resolved^ such as the most subtle actions and pro- 



91 

perties of lights beat, air, spirit, i\ttra6lion, motion of the 
heavenly bodies, &c. it occurs to \me that, if the Hebrew 
language Avas at once delivered to Aalam, he must either have 
possessed a language which he could not possibly have under- 
stood, or else he must have been miiiiutely instructed in the 
most refined philosoph}^, and the most hidden secrets of 
nature : both which I think equally improbable. 

That any living language, whatsoever, should have re- 
mained in the same state, from the Creation, to the tin^e' of 
Moses, is a thing in itself of the latmost improbabilit3\ During 
this period of 2500 years, human society had undergone the 
greatest changes imaginable. It had begun in one simple, 
inexperienced family, whose ideas and knowledge of things,, 
and consequently, whose occasion for a variety of words was , 
daily progressive. It had afterwards expanded into large 
communities, and divided into powerful states^ had been 
adorned by the acquisition of arts', and sciences, and diversi^ 
iied by the various habits, pursuits and situations of life. A 
second time it had been reduced to a single family, and a 
second time had enlarged itself, under the like variety of 
circumstances. Had no occasion occuiTcd, during such an 
eventful interval, for the introduction of new terms and 
phrases, or the affixing new meanings to those already in 
use? 

Without a continual succession of miiracles, it is impossible 
to imagine one vernacular idiom as still remaining, under 
these circumstances, unalterable in its structure, its grammar, 
the mode of its pronunciation, and the extent of its vocabu- 
lary. Before we admit that any such thing actually hap- 
pened, it is but reasonable to examine the piroofs upon which 
the fa<Sl is supposed to rest. 

T 



02 

Tlie strongest argument which I kiiow^ in favour of th« 
incorruptibihty of the Hebrew language^ is drawn from the 
book of Genesis, where Moses intimates a derivation of tlie 
names of some persons and tilings^ in the first ages, from 
Hebrew words. From hence, it has been inferred, that this 
language must have been used in the first ages, otherwise it 
could not have formed the basis of the said names. But 
the derivation of a few terms can only prove, at most, that 
the Hebrew retained the general principles of the primi- 
tive language. It does not follow that these principles had 
not been abundantly unfolded, and variously combined and 
diversified, during the progress of ages. The English language 
liiay furnish us with the true reason for many names and 
terms, in the old Gothic and Anglo-Sg^xon. Thus perhaps, 
the charader of Lok the capricious god of the Goths is best 
explained by our familiar English Luck; yet, upon the whole, 
our present tongue is a very different thing from these ancient 
dialedls. 

It rpay be urged further, that every name which admits of 
derivation, must originally have had a distindl meaning. It 
must have been given for some particular reason. It could 
not have been a proper or absolute, but a relative or descrip- 
tive term : Not a name, but an epithet. And it is not only a 
natural and obvious, but a customary thing for an historian to 
translate the titles and epithets of men and things, into the 
language of his narrative. Moses perceived that the names of 
our first parents and of then* descendants had their meaning, 
and were given for some certain reason. He may have 
judged it necessary that the meaning should be preserved and 
that the reason should appear. The names upon record may 
then be regaided as the Hebrew, rather tlian a^ the primitive 
names. * 



93 

But it is not necessary to suppose that the primitive names 
were changed by the great lawgiver. Unless we previously 
determine that language had been stationary^ it must occur^ 
that ancient and descriptive names had kept pace with the 
gradual changes of language, and had in many instances? 
departed from their original form, long before his time. He 
wrote in the language of the people. The Old Testament 
furnishes many examples of changes in the orthography of 
names, con-espondent to the usage of the time in which the 
author wrote. 

This argument, in favour of the immutability of the 
Hebrew, is therefore by no means comclusive. But we havt 
been accustomed to regard the Hebrew as a sacred, and conse- 
quently, as an incorruptible language. 

That sacredness of chara6ler, whicti this language really 
possesses, must have been derived purely from the circum- 
stance of its having been the vehicle of ]3ivine communication. 
Before it became the language of prophecy and of the law, 
I can conceive of no inherent stamp of .sacredness, with which 
it could have been distinguished. Whatt idea can we form of 
this language being sacred per se 9 It had not, surely, been 
the language of Angels, before the formation of man. It 
was nothing more than a medium for th( i expression of human 
ideas and perceptions, and for communi eating information to 
human intelleds. And why should one i human language be 
in itself more sacred than another? WI ly should the primi- 
tive language, in this respe6l, be placed before the most 
modern? 

The sacred writers themselves appear :not to have ascribed 
any peculiar sandity to the Hebrew. They frequently employ 
SjTiac and Chaldaic words, when they might have found 



94 

Hebrew terms which womid haive equally served their pur}iose. 
But they wrote to the peopk^^ and in the language of the 
people, either pure or ni ixed, as the age required. 

Were the Hebrew ia its own peculiar nature, a sacred lan- 
guage, it must have be€ n a kind of sacrilege to translate the 
scriptures into any other •. In this light the modern Jews seem 
to have regarded it. Tl ley appoint an annual fast on account 
of the septuagint versio: n. Had the seventy eiders been pre- 
possessed with this notic )n, they would never have undertaken 
the task. Christians : regard not the writings of the New 
Testament as less sacrec 1, because the copy which they have of 
them is in the Greek la nguage. 

The Law was given i a the Hebrew tongue. 

This proves that, ia the time of Moses, the Hebrew was 
the general language o f the Israelites, to whom the law was 
particularly addressed ; but it proves nothing more. We are 
not to gather from hem ze, that this people had preserved the 
use of the original lar iguage of mankind, absolutely, in its 
primitive, and uncorru pted state — a thing which must have 
been impossible, witlu mt a miracle; and no reason can be 
assigned why a miracl< ^ should have been performed on this 
occasion. 

Had it been necess ary that the primitive language should 
have been preserved e ntire, by a Divine interposition, till the 
giving of the law; of how much greater impoitance must-its 
future preserva,tion ha ve been, in order to ascertain the precise 
meaning of tl.ie sacr ed oracles? Whereas we find that the 
Hebrew, from this p eriod, has been subjed to the same vicis- 
situdes as all, other human languages. It was mixed with 
foreign term? and idiojws; It sickened and expijred 2000 



95 

years ago, and its tomb lias for ages been enveloped with the 
mist of Rabbinic prejudices^^ 

The giving of the law in Hebrew, can therefore afford no 
support to the general persuasion of the Jews, that their 
ancestors alone preserved the original language of mankind, 
pure and uncorrupted. On what foundation then does this 
opinion rest ? 

Heber, with his family, rcithdrezc from the confederacy under 
Nimrod, and consequently escaped the punishment, which was 
infiiBcd upon the children of men, at Babel, 

This in the main may be granted. But was Heber the only 
one who withdrew? Ashur, Mizraim, and Canaan, and' 
many others seem to have withdrawn still further. With 
whom did Noah and his sons reside? They were not surely 
amongst the subjeds of Nimrod, and some of them, at least, 
survived the dispersion. 

And how does it appear that the Jews, in a peculiar 
manner, preserved the language of Heber ? 

Abraham and the Israelites were the direct descendants of 
this patriarch, and were eminently styled Hebrews, both by 
themselves and by their neighbours. 

But it is clear they did not obtain this name, in consequence 
of their speaking any peculiar language, but merely because 
they were the children of Heber, or the descendants of a 
people known by the name of Hebrews. On the contraiy^ 
It seems most likely that its present name was communicated 
to this language, from the circumstance of its having been 
adopted by one branch of the Hebrews^ while, at the same 



96 

time, it was not the general diale6l of the children, of Heber^ 
neither was it peculiar to his family. 

We have a complete demonstration. Gen. xxxi. 47. that 
the great stock of the family of Heber, which remained in 
Mesopotamia, spoke the Chaldaic, and not the Hebrew 
dialedl. 

Laban, who had been brought up in the house of his 
fathers, denominates the heap of witness, certainly in his 
native tongue, Jegar Sahadutha, htnnnti^ "tV. This name is 
evidently composed of three Chaldaic words, 1Jl> A heap, 
^n^ A witness, and m or l^DM An appointment. Had 
Moses literally transcribed all the words of Laban, he could 
not have furnished us with a more satisfactory proof of tlie 
language he used. 

Jacob, on the other hand, who had been born in a foreign 
country, and had lived there from his infancy, till he was 
upwards of seventy years of age, describes the same heap in a 
language different from that of his relations. He calls 
it 1^ Vj, using two Hebrew terms, one of which implies a 
heap, and the other a witness or testimony. The name is sy- 
nonymously recorded in both languages, and therefore, 
undoubtedly, in the languages which Laban and Jacob res- 
pedlively used. The Hebrew was not then the general 
dialect of the children of Heber. 

And it is equally clear that it was not peculiar to his family. 
The prophet Isaiah, chap. xix. emphatically calls it the 
language of Canaan, 

In addition to this sacred testimony, we have the names of 
men and places amongst the old Canaanites^ in the time of 



97 

Abraham^ in pure Hebrew. We have Phoenician inscriptions, 
the fragment of the Punic language, in the Paenulus of 
Plautus, and the remains of that language, in the Island of 
Malta, as undeniable proofs, that the Hebrew was the genuine 
language of the house of Canaan, which preserved it with 
little vai-iation to a late age. 

This language could by no means have been communicated 
by Abraham to the natives of the country. It is certain that 
he found it, and very probable that he learnt it there. In his 
conversation with the inhabitants, he must have used their 
language. It is easy and natural for a stranger to acquire 
the language of the people amongst whom he settles, especially 
if it differs from his own only as a dialedl;: But it is an 
absolute impossibility for several independent kingdoms, sud- 
denly to accommodate themselves to the dialect of a single 
sojourner: and the language of the old Canaanites, and of 
the posterity of Abraham, at least^ the house of Jacob, was 
tlie same. 

The native tongue of Abraham must have been that which 

was spoken b}^ his family, in Chaldea and Mesopotamia. 

The fonner name of this very patriarch seems to be referable 
to the Chaldaic non or kdi, to be dajeSied or cast down, 
rather than to the Hebrew DT), Exalted, Lofty. 

He had been born in the declining years of his father. His 
lot was only tbat of a younger son. His own wife was barren 
and he had long been cast down, as to the hope of a progeny. 
He consequently seems to have been regarded in his native 
country as a drxj branch. No separare patrimony had been 
assigned to him. His residence was in a city which had 
received the name of his brother Haran. This must have 
been an afflicling circumstance, in an age when the sons 



98 

regularly shared the paternal estate, and became the heads of 
families, and the chiefs of the little cities: and it seems to 
have weighed heavy upon Abraham's heart. ^^ Lord God_," 
says he, *^ what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless ! — 
Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in mine 
house is mine heir." He had hoped to become the father of 
a family; but from that hope he was cast down. To the 
mortifying epithet which reminded him of his aftli6lion, his 
new Hebrew name, A father of Multitudes, which was con- 
ferred upon him several years after he had been in the land of 
Canaan, must have presented a very pleasing contrast. To 
the title of Exalted' father, it would have been no contrast 
at all. 

If, then, the Hebrew be the pure language of Koah, it 
must have been preserved to the time of Abraham, rather 
by the descendants of Canaan than by tliose of Heber. This 
will account for Jacob's using the Hebrew language, while 
Laban spoke the Chaldaic. The former had been educated 
in the land of Canaan, where he had lived to his seventy- 
seventh year. His father and his grandfather had been 
settled there for nearly two centuries. The language of that 
country must then have been the most familiar to his ear. — 
He was now returning thither, with his family, who would 
naturally adopt the same language, as a consequence of their 
residencfe amongst the natives. He therefore names the heap 
of witness, in the language which was most familiar to him- 
self, and most likely to be understood by his posterity, rather 
than in that of his Mesopotamian relations. He was right. — 
For the language of the Canaanites became that of the 
Israelites. 

It appears tlien that the Jews are not justified in their pre- 
tensions to the peculiar preservation of the primitive language* 



99 

If we consider the history of this people^ it will appear that, 
of all ancient families, they had the least chance to make 
good such pretensions. They could hardly have retained 
the uninterrupted use of any one language wiiatsoever. 

Abraliam, at the head of his single houshold^ emigrated 
out of Mesopotamia, where the Chaldaic dialed; was certainly 
spoken by his family. Both himself and his progeny sojourned 
for upwards of two centuries, generally, in the land of 
Canaan, wliere a dialed^ scarcely differing from the Hebrew 
of the Pentateuch, as certainly prevailed. There they fami- 
liarly conversed with the native , and their conversation must 
have been in the language of the country. 

Jacob afterwards fled into Mesopotamia from the resentment 
of his brother. And he fled alone; for he tells us that he 
crossed Jordan only with his staft*. In this country he re- 
mained about 20 years, where he married Chaldean or 
Aramean wives, and here his children w^ere born and partly 
educated. These children could have heard the Hebrew only 
from their father's mouth, even if we suppose that he used it 
in conversing with them. Their mother tongue was the 
Chaldaic, the same which was spoken in the family of their 
grandfather Laban. 

Jacobs with his houshold, again returned into the land of 
Canaan. Here the young men married wives who spoke the 
Canaanitiflh' language. So that when the whole family went 
down into Egypt, about So years after their return from Me- 
sopotamia, they must have carried with them both the Chaldaic 
language and that of Canaan. 

Bat as the latter w^as the dialect most familar to Jacob him- 
self, and perhaps the only diale6t of the younger and more 



100 

numerous branches^ it prevailed over the other, became the 
general language of these Hehrezcs, and at length, began to 
be distinguished by their name. 

During the former part of the two centuries that the 
Israelites remained in Egypt, they were appointed a residence 
and establishment, separate from the inhabitants of the 
Country. In this time their tribes became numerous. They 
expanded from a family into a nation. Their language ob- 
tained the stability of a national language, and from hence- 
forth they preserved it with considerable purit3% 

But the condition to which they were at last reduced must 
have rendered it almost impossible for them to preserve it 
absolutely immaculate. New habits of life and new occupa- 
tions must have introduced new ideas, and demanded new 
terms, and those which were already current amongst the 
Egyptians would, in general, be employed on such occasions. 

Such innovations, together with the accidental changes that 
took place in the language of the Israelites and the Canaanites, 
during a separation of 250 years, must have produced some 
diversity of diale<51; ; but this was not so great that the two 
nations could not converse freely, without the assistance of 
interpreters, as appears from the private conference of the 
spies with the harlot Rahab, Jos. ii. and from other passages 
in the book of Joshua. 

The Hebrew wasxthen the language of the Canaanites, in 
the time of Abraham and of Moses. It remains to determine 
how far it may be regarded as that of Noah, and conse- 
sequently, what claim it has to be made the universal stan- 
dard, by which the principles of all other languages must be 
tried. 



101 



Presuming from wliat I have already said, that I may 
n^enture to place the sacred charaBer of this language upon 
a footing with that of the Greek of the New Testament, it 
follows, that we have the tacit consent of history to enter 
upon the enquiry I now suggest; though in the prosecution of 
it, we have only the direction of some leading circumstances. 
Under this guidance, I must, for the present, content myself 
with oftering a few remarks. 

1. The Hebrew language appears to have been already 
formed and fixed, when Abraham first went into the land of 
Canaan, about 3^5 years after the Birth of Peleg, and many 
years before the death of Shem, and of the men of the first 
generations after the deluge. 

2. At this time, it was not the language of the Canaanites 
only, but also, of other families in and about Palestine. — 
Thus the princes of the Philistines, the progeny of the first 
Egyptians, wese saluted in pure Hebrew, by the name of 
Abimelech, ^^ My Father the King," and the chief captain of 
the host was called Phicol, The mouth ofallj a most expressive 
title for a general commander. The formation of a language 
which was common to independent tribes, one proceeding 
from the North (from Sidon) and the other from the South 
(Egypt) could not have been recent. 

3. Its general characler must have been patriarchal.— ^ — ~ 
Ashur had withdrawn beyond the Tigris, at the time of the 
foundation, not the destruction of Nimrod's jdngdom, and 
therefore long before the confusion. Mizraim had founded 
an early kingdom in Egypt, whence the Philistine colony. — 
The old Chaldeans had dwelt between the two rivers, from 
the days of Peleg. Canaan (the Xva of Sanchon. and his first 
Phoenician) seems^ at the same time, to have withdrawn to 

G 3 



102 

Sidon^ the seat of liis first born, whence his piogeny had 
spread themselves along the Phoenician coast, and Eastwards, 
to the banks of Jordan, before the time of Abraham. Tlie 
Western Syria and Arabia were also inhabited in very early 
times. These countries contained tribes which had been 
distind, from the age when the families had first divided ; yet 
the languages which were spoken in them had a great degree 
of aftinity with each other. They were in fadt, only dialecls 
of one language, and that one could have been no other than 
that of the great patriarchs, who were still living when Abra- 
ham settled amongst the Canaanites. Neither of these primi- 
tive nations could have borrowed the rudiments of its 
vernacular dialedl from another nation, which had settled at 
a distance. Wliat they possessed in common must have 
been derived from the parent stock, and carried with the first 
families into their respective settlements. 

4. The names of those heiids of famiilies amongst the 
Noachidae, which divided the kingdoms of the eardi, or 
rather the gentile names of those tribes which weie established 
during the second century after the deluge, are either terms 
of the Hebrew language or of cejtain kindred dialeds. Yet 
they were the names by v/h^ch the several nations distin- 
guished themselves, for they a e generally recognized by the 
old geographers. The severul nations then originally carried 
with them dialecls, not greatly differing from the Hebrew. 

5. Hence it undeniably follows, that the fundamental 
principles and general characler of the patriarchal laHguage 
9f Noah must be preserved in the Hebrew language, and in 
those dialects which are connedled with it. 

6. The Hebrew was the language of an aclive, enter-^ 
prizing people. During the nine centuries which intervened 



I 



103 



between the deluge and the publication of the Pentatcucli, 
this^ as well as the sister dialedts, must have undergone some 
accidental, and some necessary changes, and a considerable 
degree of artificial cultivation ; yet the simplicity and com- 
prehension of its principles, tlie regularity of its structure, and 
above all, the venerable and unrivalled antiquity of that 
volume in which it is preserved, seem to give it a decided 
superiority over either of the others. We know what the 
Hebrew \^as 3300 years ago, and^can make out its claim to an 
antiquity still higher. Though it cannot safely be pronounced 
to have been the primitive language, yet it must be received as 
a diale<5l of this language, and as a most respe6lable scale to 
appreciate the charader of every dialedl whatsoever. 

7. From these observations may be demonstrated the 
absolute error of a general principle, laid down by some 
eminent philologists. It has been observed that the languages 
of savage nations generally consist of very long words and 
abound with vowels ; and hence it has been contended, that 
such was the original character of all languages. The 
Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac and Arabic roots are remarkably 
simple, short, and strong. The long vocal terms of savages 
are not then characteristical of the infancy, but of the decay 
and ruin of language. JNIan w^as not fiat uralfy, nor orighiallt/ 
a savasje. 



104 



VIII. 

Of the general stores which the nations carried to their 
respective settlements. 



B 



UT to return to the sera of Nimrod's rebellion. 



When so great a part of the human race had conspired to 
resist the execution of the Divine mandate, we must suppose 
that the families who still respe6led the authority of the 
patriarch, hegan to repair towards their allotted habitations, 
under the diredion of Noah, his sons and their obedient 
children. The fathers of families considered their respective 
portions of the earth as their proper estate, and the inheritance 
of their offspring : it must then have been a leading obje<5l 
with them to take personal charge of their lots. They were 
not sent forth to explore regions absolutely unknown and 
undiscovered. Noah and his sons must have had some 
knowledge of the regions of the earth, as far as they had 
been known and inhabited before the flood. In the ad: of 
partition after the flood, they must have described their 
boundaries. The patriarchs who took possession of the larger 
divisions must afterwards have assigned to their children their 
due proportions. So that in an age or two after the first 
partition, every region of the known world, which was 
adapted to the support and comfort of human society, must 
have received that germe which gradually expanded into its 
primitive nation: and thus Spain, and even Britain were 
probably colonized by those who were born within a century 
of the deluge. 



105 

Moses having enumerated the sons of Gomer and Javan^ 
parallels in descent with Salah, who was horn 37 years after 
the floods adds as follows. '' BY THESE were the Isles of 
the Gentiles DIVIDED— IN THEIR LANDS— EVERY 
ONE after HIS TONGUE— AFTER THEIR FAMILIES 
—IN THEIR NATIONS. : If this be not a positive declara- 
tion that a regular and complete Division, agreeably to certain 
general rules, actually took place, in the time and under the 
dire6lion of these patriarchs, I know not by what v.'ords such 
a fa6i could have been recorded, 

. It would surely be absurd to explain it aw^ay by the incohe- 
rent scraps of Greek tradition, w^hich generally confound the 
first settlement of the nations with the svhsec^exit wandering 
of the exiled Titans. 

And it need hot be proved that societies thus planted and 
formed, whether in Britain or in Japan, must have carried 
wdth them the primitive history, the primitive religion, the 
institutions, customs, habits, opinions, arts and sciences of 
the patriarchal age, and the primitive language, with only 
such gradual variations as might be occasioned by local cir- 
cumstances. 

The founders of these societies had been trainetl up to tl^e 
habits and comforts of social and civilized life. It must then 
have been ordered, that they should repair to their respe6live 
estates, with all those provisions by which such comforts were 
to be secured. Amongst other things they must have taken 
with them their stock of sheep and cattle and other domestic 
animals. Their removal then, though uninterrupted, must 
have been gradual. 

On the other hand, their unworthy brediren, the rebcUious 



100 



giants who, sometime afterwards, were struck witli^ astonish- 
ment at the sudden inflidtion of Divine vengeance, were driven 
forth from among meiiy and scattered into all lands, to the 
East, and North, and South, as well as to the West, must 
have fled in disorder and confusion. Their flocks and their 
herds could not have accompanied the tumultuous retreat of 
the wandering exiles. Their consequent indigence must iiave 
introduced all the wretched irregularities of savage life, and 
fitted them only for the occupation of hunters and robbers. 

A just abhorrence of the proverbial impiety of tlie great 
tebel, and an awful recolle6lion of the signal punishment of his 
associates, would naturally dispose the fathers of tlie more 
regular societies, to preserve the sacred institutions of their 
ancestors, with the utmost care, and to fix the grand arcana 
of primitive wisdom upon a firm base. 

And to these ends, what could have been more conducive, 
than to constitute such regular Hierarchies, as ancient history 
describes in various parts of the earth — ^To make the wisest 
and most approved men, in every society, the instinclors of 
the people^ and the depositories of primitive tradition t 

To such societies, the nations were indebted for those 
vestiges of early opinions and science which remained amongst 
them; while the societies themselves, after the various cor- 
ruptions of a long series of ages, were found to resemble each 
other, in the simplicity of their manners, their general doc- 
trines, their discipline, their customs and their learning; and 
in all these respe6ts to have presented a striking pidure of the 
age of Noah and his immediate descendants. 

They preserved an amiable medium between savage rude- 
ness and frivolous refinement. They regarded their institu- 



- 107 

tions as -relics of the first ages^ and uniformly deemed tlieir 
mysteries too sacred, to be exposed in presence of such 
profane strangers as dwelt amongst them. 

This last trait in their charader led to some serious ill con- 
sequences, but the abuse which crept into the s-ystem cannot 
impeach the wisdom of its original establishment. 

Wherever we recognize an establishment of this kind, in a 
primitive nation, we need not be over curious to determine 
by what people, or what family it may possibly have been 
introduced. Unless there be clear evidence to the contrary^ 
we maj' fairly regard it aa coeval with the nation itself. 

I may here take notice of a singularity that runs through 
the traditions of the gentile world, namely their nationality m 
primitive history. Whatever accounts are preserved of the 
primitive ages, are made by every people to relate, almost 
exclusively, to their own country, and their own ancestors. — 
They must have been thq original reporters, the egotists , of 
such tales. There was nothing foreign in their colouring. 

Thus, for instance, the history of th^ Deluge was almost 
universal. All nations give an account of the destruction of 
the old world by water, and of the preservation of a single 
family, in a boat or ark. Yet all of them make the boat to 
rest, upon some mountain, or on the bank of some river or 
lake, in their own territories, where some distinguished per- 
sonages, amongst their own ancestors, are put to land. A 
history thus circumstanced could not have been borrowed of 
strangers. The nations must have derived it, in a dired line, 
from their common parents. 

Wlien this nationality is considered, we need not wonder 



108 

that so many people contend for the invention of tliose arts 
which were preserved from the first ages. They are all right : 
excepting that they mistake the common progenitors of man- 
kind for their own national ancestors; and of course, whatever 
is due to the former, is consigned to the latter. 

But the very traditions themselves will furnish sufficient 
data to re6tify the mistake. 

In the time of Alexander the Great, Berosus, a Chaldean 
priest, wrote the history of his country, from the remotest 
times. Much of his genuine work is unfortunately lost. But 
Syncellus, an author of good credit, tells Us that the first book 
treated of the situation of Babylonia, the fruitfulness of the 
soil, its trees and plants and other commodities, and then ex- 
pounded the fables and allegories which enveloped the 
theology of the Chaldeans. Thfe second book' treated of Ten 
Kings of the Chaldeajis, Before the Flood. If the Chal- 
deans had an exclusive right to the ten antediluxian patriarchs, 
their title to the invention of all primitive arts and sciences 
must certainly be good. 

The Egyptians, however, will dispute the point with them. 
Strike the boasted discoveries of their ancestors out of the 
catalogue, and civil society could not have existed. Who 
were these ancestors of theirs ? We need not ask the Greeks ; 
let us enquire of the Egyptians themselves. 

'^ Manetho, in one of his books, entitled Sothis, relates 
several things concerning The Empire of the Egyptians, taken 
from certain columns, which were engraved in the sacred 
dialed and in hieroglyphic letters, by Thoth, the first Mercury: 
and After the Deluge, transcribed into books, by 
(another) Thoth, the son of Agathademon.*' Euseb. r.E.i,9. 



109 

Josephus i, 2. and Amm. MarcelL L. xxii. give us nearly 
the same account of antediluvian engraving ; but we need not 
go any further. Whatever becomes of the authenticity of the 
inscribed columns, Manetho is good authority for the tradition 
of the Egyptians. 

This Empire of his countrymen, and the Great Thoth, the 
inventor of their arts, and the recorder of their history, like 
the ten kings of Berosus,, existed before the deluge. 

The Greeks in general are proud of borrowing ; but some- 
times they put in their claim for the discovery of primitive 
and important arts. Their claim shall be allowed, when they 
have persuaded us that Deucalion and Pyrrha, who alone 
escaped the universal deluge, were Greeks, and brought their 
vessel to land on Mount Parnassus. 

The Phoenicians are another favourite nation with all anti- 
quaries. They boast their title to many important discoveries; 
but it appears that their discoveries also mount up to the very 
first age of mankind, and therefore were antediluvian. 

Sanchoniathon, a very old Phoenician historian, in a frag- 
ment preserved by Eusebius, gives an allegorical account of 
the earliest ages, by which it appears that the traditions of 
this people were not less absurdly national than those of their 
neighbours. The Most High is represented as dwelling in 
the neighbourhood of Byblos, a city of Phoenicia, even before 
he had produced Heaven and Earth. 

In the age immediately succeeding the Creation, The first 
Cronus (or husbandman) is attended by his Secretary Hermes 
Trismegistus, Thoth or Taayroj. The author seems to use 
these terms as appellations for an inventor and recorder of 4u:ts 



110 

arid sciences ; for from henceforth we find Thoth ready upon 
all occasions^ in all places and in successive ages, delivering 
his advice, making inventions and committing them to 
writing. 

He imitated [made a drawing of] the Heavens [distinguislied 
and described the constellations.] He drew the portraits of 
the Gods [a series of mystical symbols] of whi ch he formed 
the sacred chara6lers of the letters. And all this happened 
before the Second Cronus (Noah) came into the Southern 
regions (Shinar) and bestowed the kingdom of Egypt upon 
Thoth. 

The author having recited his allegory, which contains^ 
much important but mysterious matter, proceeds to give us 
an account of it, in plain historical language. 

'^ The Cabiri, or the seven song of Sydic (ply, the Just one) 
and Asclepius their eighth brother were the first, who, by the 
command of Thoth, transmitted the memory of all these 
things by their writings. 

" The son of Thabion, the first hierophant (Jav ecir awvoi 
yiyovoruv (i^ornxuv) of the most remote ancestors of the Phoeni- 
cians, converted these memorials into allegories, and blending 
them with natural phaenomena, delivered them to those who 
celebrate the orgies, and to the prophets who preside over the 
sacred mysteries. 

" These men studying to promote (Ty^ov) blind admiration, 
handed them down in this form to their successors, and to 
those who were initiated. One of these (initiates) was Isiris,- 
the inventor of three letters, and the brother of Chna (Canaan) 
the first who had the name of Phoenician." 



Ill 



The country, the charader and the antiquity of this author 
entitle the fragment before us to the highest resped, amongst 
poetic histories. Sanchoniathon was a Plioenician, and a 
most diligent searcher andi faithful transcriber of the recoixls of 
his country, and is supposed to have hved 300 years before 
Homer. We have then no room to appeal, from his autho- 
rity, to any Greek or. Roman writer, respecting the opinions 
of the old Phoenicians. 

We are here informed that the discoveries and the records 
ascribed to Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus, whatever they 
may have been, originated in the first ages of mankind, long 
before the Phoenicians or the Egyptians became a distin<5l 
nation. 

For the memorial of these things was first committed to 
writing-^and afterwards converted into allegories, and in this 
form delivered to the priests, who handed them down in suc- 
cession, to the time of Isiris the brother of Chna or Canaan, 
the patriarch of the Phoenicians. 

This Isiris, whom Sanchoniathon elsewhere calls Misor, 
could be no other than the father of the Egyptian family, and 
consequently their first King and their first Priest. He there- 
fore united in his own person the chara6ters of — Mizraim, the 
Brother of Canaan^ and the Father of the Egyptians : 

Osiris, the deified ancestor of the Eg^^tians: 

Thoth, the son of Agathodemon, or the good genius, their 
first national instrudor, who transcribed the records, and 
enforced the precepts of his great antediluvian predecessor^ 
and 



112 

That Thotlif upon whom the second Cronus or Noah first 
bestowed the kingdom of Egypt. 

This distinguished personage, agreeably to the testimony of 
the Phoenician historian, may have adlually augmented the 
primitive alphabet, by the invention of three new letters ; for 
it is well known, that the alphabet which Moses brought out 
of Egypt, contained more letters than w^ere originally used by 
otlier ancient nations. 

However this may have been, it is clear, from the pre- 
ceding quotations, that the local and national pretensions of -all 
these people to original invention must, in a great measure, 
be removed from their private ancestors, and restored to the 
common fathers of the human race. 

And thus their traditions may be rendered consistent with 
eacli other, and with the history of the Old Testament. For 
it has already been observed, tliat there is not perhaps one 
single art, or a single branch of science which may be traced 
to any nation of high antiquity, that is not expressly men- 
tioned or clearly alluded to, in the book of Job; and that, in 
this book, the knowledge of things human and Divine is not 
ascribed to any contemporary order of men ; but to the search 
of the long-lived fathers of mankind, and to the tradition of 
the great patriarchs, to whom alone the earth zoas given. 

The above passage of Sanchoniathon furnishes occasion of 
remarking another trait which disfigured the theology, philo- 
sophy and traditional doClrines of ail nations, and in time 
produced the most pernicious efteds. I mean the veil of 
secrecy under which they taught, and the use of allegory,- 
figurative titles and mystical symbols. By means of these, 
the truth was concealed from the eyes and ears of the people. 



113 



m\io, consequently, soon began to mistake the shadow for 
the substance,, and to perceive a multitude of Gocls, where 
only the various relations and operations of one God, and the 
phtcnomena and changes of Nature, were originally intended. 
Ail this is well accounted for by tlie grave historian. 

Long before the division of the nations, before Chna set- 
tled in Phosuieia or Thoth in Egypt, plain matter of fact had 
been converted into mysterious Allegory, and sacred and 
historical truth blended with the symbols of s<easons, revolur 
tions of the heavenly bodies, and the like. This mystical 
doc^rin^ was delivered to the priests who kept the key of 
{knowledge, and who most cniiiinally encouraged popular 
delusion (Toy rv^ov pcv^tiv sz -ttocvto'; £7rivoovvTBi) studying above all 
things to promote astonishment and admiration. The intror 
du6lion or the revival of such aenigmatical lore was, perhaps, 
that evil imagination of man*s heart which was reprovecj 
immediately after the deluge. Gen. viii. 21, 

Notwithstanding these and similar blemishes, it may be 
determined, upon the whole, that the descendants pf Noah, 
who first planted the nations, had been habituated to the 
forms and institutions of social and cultivated lite, and that 
they carried with them, to their respedive habitations, much 
valuable information, which they had therefore an opportu^ 
jiity of transmitting to their chiidren. 

It will be observed that in many of the more distant nations, 
the manual arts, and consequently, the conveniencies of 
society were soon depressed, far below the standard 1 have 
laid down. This may very readily be accounted for. Me-- 
chanism of all kinds depends much upon external meanSj 
particularly upon thoi use of the harder metals. 



114 



These were well known before the separation of mankind^, 
and there can be no doubt, that the Noachidae furnished 
themselves with those implements which thej might have 
occasion for. But what the present family carried in their 
hands, would by no means supply the future nation. Some 
ages may have elapsed, and the metallargic mystery may 
have been forgotten, before they discovered veins of ore in 
their new settlements. Merchants from the central regions 
would not begin to traffic with strangers, till they became 
sensible of some wants of their own; and then they would 
Tisit only such countries as were provided with commodities 
to reward their labour. Many remote nations were then 
compelled to have recourse to the stone hatchet and the 
wooden spade. What remains of metal they might still 
possess only glittered occasionally in the hands of their chiefs* 

But intellectual acquisitions w^ere not so necessarily subject 
to decaj'. They depended less upon the productions of 
nature and the soil. 

History might loiig suiTive in tradition^ religion in it3 
tenets and discipline, philosophy in its maxims, and sciences 
hi their principles, 

In the back settlements of America we find men accommo-* 
dated like savages, but informed as members of civil society ; 
and in ancient authors we read of sages, of no mean fame, 
residing amongst rude ?ind barbarous nations. 

Primitive tradition, of whatever kind, was preserved with 
iTiore or less purity, owing to a variety of circumstances, 
which arose from local situation, the various means of sub- 
sistence, and the various talents and dispositions of men. 

Some nations uniformlv revered the institutions of tlieir an- 



115 



cestors^ others became ambitious of distinguishing themselves 
by new inventions^ and improvements,, and of course despised 
the simphcity of former times, and a third sort contented 
themsehes with satisfying tire wants and gratifying the 
appetites and passions of nature, upon the most easy teims^ 
and so degenerated into the savage state. 

The Greeks and Romans from whom we derive much of 
our learning, and many of our enors respecting the early 
ages, at one period of their history, were not far removed 
from this character. Their avowed w^ant of infonrxation as to 
the remote events of history, and their readiness to adopt a 
heterogeneous mass of fable and superstition from their neigh- 
bours, furnish the clearest proofs that they had broken the 
chain of ancient lore. How could it have been otherwise r — 
The states of the former people, at one time, were little more 
than companies of pyrates, and the latter owed their being to 
a band of robbers. 

In the preceding sketches,^ I have endeavoured to state my 
reasons for receiving with some hmitation several popular 
opinions, and amongst the rest, a theory which has been 
conceived by distinguished genius, and supported by a pro- 
fusion of learning, and which deduces all that was valuable 
amongst the ancient nations, from the house of Ham, and 
from the confederates of Nimrod, 

I feel no pride in singularity. It is with regret, I differ in 
some particulars from men whose talents and erudition I con- 
template with the profoundest respect, and my pen hesitates 
while I suggest a suspicion that there is some defecl in the 
groundwork of the system I have just mentioned. 

Must we receive it as a matter of faci, that all rule and au- 

n 2 



lie 



tliority amongst the nations devolved to that family^ which 
was prophetically doomed to be tlie servant of servants to their 
bretliren ? 

Has it ever been the peculiar province of the same people 
to innovate and to preserve? If not_, how shall we ascribe all 
traces of primitive tradition to those apostates, who rejected 
the wisdom of their fathers and bewildered themselves with 
new inventions — all arts and sciences to those men v»'hose 
plans and designs were utterly overthrown — all the remains of 
one universal language to those, whose language was so con- 
founded that they could not understand one another's speech ; 
or all established and well-regulated society to those who, 
:first of all, tumultuously assembled under the banner of an 
impious rebel, and afterwards were scattered abroad over the 
face of the earth ? 

Or if we turn our view to profane history, can it be ima- 
gined that the Gods and the sons of the Gods who vanquished 
and dispersed the rebellious giants, and those giants themselves, 
were not only one and the same people, but frequently the 
same individuals; and that, by being thus self-vanquished 
and self-destro^'ed, the same giants became Lords of the 
world f 



ESSAY, 

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE CELT.E 



THEia. 



INSTITUTION OF DllUIDISM 



AND THEIR 



PRETENSIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF LETTERS. 



Sect. I. Frellminary remarks Origin of the Celtcz — - 

Remarks upon the European Scythes, 

jl\. Retiospe6l into the early periods and state of Britain — 
the charader^ the arts and the customs of its primitive 
inhabitants, is not an exercise of idle and simple curiosity ; 
but of critical importance, in the pursuit of historical and 
philosophical truth. It not only delights the imagination 
with a view of our hills, valleys and plains, as they presented 
themselves to the eye three thousand years ago, and shews to 
us the simple native, in his first occupations ; but also points 
out tbe origin, progress and improvement of such knowledge 
as, to this day, constitutes the ornament and the comfort of 
society. 



118 

I therefore trust, that no apology "will be required for 
attempts,, even by me, to discriminate fa6ts^ relative to the 
Celtic Nation ; the original possessors of the British Islands> 
and the remote progenitors of many of their present occupiers. 

The Governments, the Institutions and Customs of that 
nation were, in great measure, obliterated by the Romans, 
who discovered but little curiosity, either to examine the 
history of strangers, whom they despised, or to enter minutely 
into the value of establishments, which had been doomed, by 
their decree, to ruin. Consequently the notices which they 
have left us, respe6ling the Celtse, are slight and superficial. 
These documents, liowever, such as they are, have been at- 
tentively weighed; and men of discernment have engrafted 
upon them one general conclusion, '^ That the Celtce, though 
comparatively to others, a simple race of men, were possessed 
of some usefat k?iowledge, not common to them with neighbours 
more polished, and which deserved a better fate than total 
oblivion,^^ 

Repeated endeavours have been made, by ingenious men, 
to develope some of their attainments: but the lamps of 
Greece and Rome throw a faint gleam over the field ; and 
what is dimly perceived must be eiToneously described. 

The mass of the people, not being much raised above a 
condition of servitude — pa^nh serveorum loco — were but little 
informed, and as little ambitious of that refinement or culti- 
vation in their manners, which could have procm-ed them no 
honourable distinctions. 

But their ^^ Equites'' or Nobility are described, in a manner 
which entitles them to respe6t. They were by no means 
destitute of culture and of science. In this order all the 



119 

power seems to have centred. For though,, in some of their 
states^ their supreme or chief magistracy was elecSlive, yet the 
prince wa5 chosen out of privileged families j and by consti-^ 
tuents of equal rank. 

To this rank belonged their celebrated order of Druids, — = 
In this rank they originated. Their disciples were the 
^' Most Noble.*" They were educated, with incredible 
vigilance and care, for the most saci^ed offices. It was the 
immediate and sele61;ed province of those who were admitted 
mto the order, to record and perpetuate the customs, tradi- 
tions, and general history of the nation, from the time of 
their first progenitors — -to administer Justice — to superintend 
the due execution of the Laws — -to encourage virtue and 
punish vice — -to inculcate religious and moral precepts — to 
dire6l the ceremonies of piety and enforce its duties. 

Their studies embraced those elevated objedb which had 
engaged the attention of the world in its primitive age — ^The 
jiature of the Deity — of the human Soul — of the future State 
•■ — of the heavenly bodies— of the terrestrial globe, and of its 
various productions, Their conceptions were great and 
subhme, their speculations comprehensive in their sphere, 
pervading most of the arts and sciences which had interested 
the earliest periods. Perhaps there was no order of men 
fimongst the heathens, who preserved the history and the 
opinions of mankind, in its early state^ with more simphcity^ 
and with more integrity. 

The religion of the patriarchs had, indeed, been deforaied 
with various superstitions, by all nations. But this order, 
notwithstanding their many and gross errors, appear to have 
retained many of its vital and essential principles. 

* Mela. iii. 2, 



120 

Under a variety of relative names and c}iara6ler&^ they 
acknowledged one God, the maker of all things, and the 
Lord of the universe. They taught the superintendency of 
Divine Providence — the immortality of the soul — moral re- 
sponsibility, and recompence after death. 

As a consequence of these principles, they observed, as 
well as enjoined, the most rigid justice in their decisions, and 
in their dealings with mankind*. 

Their portrait, as sketched by ancient authors, has a 
marked resemblance to that of other sacred orders, in die 
most remote ages and countries. 

Dr. Borlase demonstrates their general and close analogy to 
the Magi of Persia. It almost constituted identity. They 
scarcely differed in their name; for Pliny calls the Druids the 
3Iagi of the Gauls and Britonsf. 

The most able author of the Indian Antiquities, marks, with 
deep and sound learning, the same affinity between the 
Druids and Brachmans of India. It may be extended to the 
Chaldeans, and the Orphie Priesthood of Thrace, as wtU as 
to many others. 

As this resemblance of charader has been justly deemed 
both too perfect and general, to be resolved into accidental 
co-incidence, it has been the ingenious labour of many learned- 
men, to ascertain the several means, by which the institutions, 
opinions and customs of the Eastern world have been imported 
into the West of Europe. 

* Mela, ubi sup. Caes, De Bello Gal. VI, and Dr. Borlasc passim, 
t L, XXX, C. !• 



121 



But may it not be asked^ if the most peculiar instances of 
similarity^ thus noticed between the East and the West, do 
not refledl the general character of the patriarchal age, and 
primitive man, before his family had separated? If so, why 
should we derive universah from particulars^ The distant 
branches of a spreading oak, notwithstanding tlie diversity of 
shape which they acquire, from their exposure to different 
winds, have still a mutual resemblance, in their texture, their 
foliage, and their fruit; which they derive, not from each 
other, but from the parent acorn. 

Do we not find this primitive chara6ler, so deeply impressed 
upon the Celtge, so general through their land, and at so 
early an age, as to make it impossible for the dye to have 
been fixt by wandering navigators, or the local settlement of 
a few strangers, whose objedi was profit, and who must them- 
selves have been obje<5l;s of distrust ? As all nations originally 
came from one stock, and, at an age, when the I'labits of 
society were developed, would it not be reasonable to conclude, 
that some general customs and opinions of the human rac^ 
were naturalized in the land, by the first families who settled 
in the Western Continent ^^ 

The Greeks had been a powerful people at Marseilles, many 
centuries before Caesar's time. The ancient inhabitants, who 
remained in the land which thei/ occupied, may have learnt 
several arts and habits from them: But the vicinity of those 
Greeks appears not to have effedled any change in the Religion 
or the Chara<5ler of the Gaulish Nation, 

Abating then for these instances in which history demon- 
strates their obligation to exotic aid, I cannot refuse to the 
Celtai and their Druids, the full credit which is due to them, 
for having preserved those genuine features of primaval 



122 



histori/, which they are known to ha.ve possessed. These are 
features marked^ and clear enough^ to point them out as a 
nation regularly constituted under the auspices of its pa- 
triarchs. They could not have originated in those fugitives 
who had been driven out from society^ or have reached their 
Western destination, in the character of unconnected and 
unprincipled savages, 



The perplexity and scantiness of ancient evidence leave so 
much obscurity in the earliest account of nations, that, when 
the subje6t has been handled by men of consummate abilities 
and of accute research, the discussion has generally closed 
in doubt at the best. I must therefore bespeak the candour of 
my Readers, in their judgment of the Qutlines which I havq 
endeavoured to trace, concerning the origin of the Celtae^ 
and of the arguments which I offer in support of my opinion, 
that the fundamental principles of Dniidism accompanied that 
nation, from its verif soiirce. And I deem it a fortunate cir- 
cumstance, that my obje6b and plan do not require of m^ to 
enter minutely, or deeply, into these topics. 

The Celt^, whether under that name, or called Cimmerii, 
Gain, Briges, Brigantes; or known by other^ and very nu- 
merous designations, appropriated either to the whole, or to 
certain branches of the nation, are described as an extensive 
and powerful Race, of Europe, and as constituting some of 
its. first inhabitants. The ancient Greeks appear to have 
placed them almost alone, in our western continent, which 
they distinguished by their name. Ephorus dividing the 

"World into four parts^ allotted the Western to the Celts^. 

Strab, L. i. 



123 

Ptolemy calls that whole part of the world, which is com- 
monly known by the name of Europe, Celtkuy or Celto- 
Galatia. — Quadripart. L. ii. C. 2. 

The Celtse were then the principal Em'Opeans known to the 
Greeks, exclusive of their own famihes. We must therefore 
inquire into the original population of Europe, in ordei' to 
find out the parentage of the Celtae, And this appears to be 
delineated in the tenth clmpter of Genesis, that fountain-head 
of universal geography. 

The sacred Penman enumerates those heads of separate 
families, amongst the Noachidse, by whom the Earth was 
divided, after the flood. He describes them by those names 
which the nations that sprung from them, or the countries 
they severally occupied, retained in his time. By those 
parts of the earth which he calls D''Un ^^'iK, or the Isles of the 
Gentiles, it is understood that he means Europe, and. its 
adjacent Islands. These were divided by the Sons and 
Grandsons of Japheth, or rather by Gomer and Javan, and 
their sons — " In their lands, every one after his tongue, 
after their families, in their Nations.'* This division must 
have been regularly conduded. It must have taken place in 
the time of the patriarchs here mentioned, for the a61 was 
theirs, and the nations retained their names to the time of 
Moses — nay many of them long afterwards, for we find them 
recognized by History and"^ Geography. 

Javan is well known as the parent of the Greeks. From him 
the name luveq was applied anciently to all the several branches 
of that nation. It extended into Macedon and Thrace'*. 

luvt<; iKcchovv. Heysch. V. Iwve?. 

E-arteixwj 3e *oi Ba^Ca^otroii? EA?v»ja5 \wva,<i ^^syovcn, Hesych, V. lavvoi, 
n<»yT«5 E^?iv«j I«ovi$ \\ B»§C«poi txa^pvv. SchoL in Acharn* Arisioph, 



124 

This family were not called Celtcz nor Cimmerii. ,If 
Celtae were known, in part of their territories,, by the names 
of TiTxviCf T'/)yEmq, or natives of the land, they were still re- 
garded as intruders, and described as men of mighty who 
retained possession rather by force, than by a lawful claim to 
it, and who were, upon that account, justly expelled. 

We must look then for the Celtge amongst the descendants 
of Gomer. The word noj implying to finish, to come, or bring 
to an end or conclusion, may intimate the situation intended 
for the posterity of this patriarch, at the end of the Earth, A 
people named from Gomer would be DHDJ or >*yo^ Gomerim 
or Gomeri, and it could be shewn, in a multitude of instances^ 
that C or K in the Celtic, and other European languages, 
occupies the place of the Hebrew :i. Cymri or Kimmerii maj- 
then be nothing more than Gomerii, 

Were not the name of Celtse acknowledged by the people 
of Gaul, it might, with reasonable conje6ture, be derived 
from nb'D, synonymous with 1D-3; rib>D, A finishing. An End ; 
»nVD, Celtk, men of the extremity — \i io-^ocrai. Cikt (Kilet) 
in the language of the Celtse themselves, implies Extreme 
Corners or Retreats, and I think also. Northern regions. 

Be this, however, as it may, Josephus, who may be deemed 
an able critic in Hebrew geography, declares that those whom 
the Greeks called Galatae or Celtse were descended from 
Gomer. 

We read of three sons who divided the patrimony of Gomer, 
or of three nations which descended from him, namely 
Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. These of course were 
equally entitled to the name of Gomeritse. But as the 
Western, or our Celtse^ appear to have been one separated 



125 



nation^ we must endeavour to discriminate their progenitor, 
amongst the sons of Gomer. 

The original seat of Ashkenaz appears to have been situated 
in Bithynia, which preserved his naine to a late period of the 
Jewish annals. 

Riphath's patrimony is^ at this day, acknowledged by the 
Jews_, who call Germany by his name. It is probable this 
name originally applied to the Eastern division of that exten- 
isive region, which the ancients entitled Germanyj, as the part 
best known to the Israelites, an Asiatic people. And here 
$ome vestiges of it seem to be retained in the Carpathian 
llp^D mountains^* and perhaps the Riphean hills, further 
North. Here then we may fix the seat of Riphatb, whose 
descendants, in that situation, could not have been the Goths. 
They were not in possession of Gerrpany, in the time of 
Moses. Riphath was probably the Sarmatian stock, which_, 
at this day, continues to occupy that ground, a race which 
could not even be attacked without extreme temerity, and 
whose land presented but little incitement to enterprize. 

That the Sarmatae held these territories before the aggran-^ 
clizement of Gotljic power, we have reason to conclude.— — 



Wiiether some of their colonies had already crossed the 
Vanube, and had carried their language into Illyricum or 
Pannonia may be more questionable. But the Wendi, or 
descendants from the ancient Venedi, speak the Sarmatic 
language, at this very moment, though surrounded by Gothic 
nations. It is not pretended that, at any time, this handful 
of men penetrated into the possessions of the Goths, or ac- 
quired an establishment by vidlories. Conquerors take the 
best, the richest, the most accessible and the most open parts 
of the distrid obtained, and there maintain a superiority of 



126 

power^ if they mean to hold what they have acquhed. But 
the situation, as well as the condition, of this race^ and their 
first name, combine in proving them reUcs of the former in- 
habitants, or aboriginal. The Sarmatce, then, or Sclavones, 
were those whom the Goths found in the land of Riphath, or 
the Eastern division of ancient German}^, and the diversity of 
their language proves them no parents of the Western Celta?, 
though it has a degree of affinity with the Celtic, which 
intimates that, once they were contiguous families. 

,♦ 
Togarmah is claimed as their patiiarch by the inhabitants 
of those comitries which lie between the Euxine or Caspian 
seas. This appears to be demonstrated, in a masterly paper, 
the work of Mr, Granville Penn, to which I refer my own 
Headers for the authorities*. From this country have sprang, 
as it is generally understood, the Ewopean Sci/thians, Goths 
or Germans. Perhaps they have nearly retained the name of 
their progenitor. 3 affixed, being equivalent to the prefix 
D, inD"i:i, German, must be the same word as riD'njn, Togarmah, 
perhaps from D*i;i, to be botiy or strong. It may at all events 
be safely concluded, from the language of this Race, that in 
Togarmah we have no parent of the Western Celtic, 

We must return then to Ashkenaz, whom Josephus calls 
A?xayal«?, and the Greeks perhaps A?xa«oj. His name is 
tmderstood to keep possession of the Ascanian or Euxine sea, 
as well as of the nook which lies between that sea and the 
Propontisf. When Ashkenaz occupied this position, the 

* Orient. Coll. v. 2, p. 143. 

+ Ascania, a city of Troas. Stepk. of Phrygia, Tfesyc/t; 

Ascaniae insulje, before Troas. Plin. 

Ascanius sinus, by Nicea, Ascanius Lacus, between Phrygia and Mysia, 

Arrian. 
A liver, and the whole distrift were known by that name. Strabo. whc 
cites from Euphorion~Mi'sot$ -ara^' t;^«?tv A$«avjcio. 



127 

Eiixiiie bounded him on one hand, the family of Javan on 
the other, Lud was placed m his rear and the Thracian 
Bosphorus in front. This nook was never intended for the 
inheritance of the Eldest branch of the Noachidffi. It was a 
mere halting place upon the road. 

If the name of Ashkenaz be at all conne6led with the Celtic 
language, the first of its three syllables must be regarded only 
as a demonstrative article, or a particle in composition of a 
similar meaning to iZ;>K, an individual of any kind, which is 
sometimes wTitten li^N, as in this name. And accordingly, 
the families descended from this patriarch seem to have 
dispensed at pleasure with that article. 

In this corner of Asia, we find the Heneti or Veneti, 
w4iich, pronounced by a Celt would be Ilenet, Kynet, or 
Gwenet, well known tribes wherever the Celtcc are found.— 
The country of these Heneti or Veneti, seems to have been 
the Haiydd, the origin, the source or the native region of the 
Celtse. In the same distvicl, we have the Cau-Cones, and 
the Isles of the Ki/mmi, 

Upon the European side of the Propontis, in the Kingdom 
of RhesuS) a name which has frequently adorned the Throne 
of Siluria, and the songs of the Bards, the prefedure of 
Kccnica is mentioned. Closely adjoining are the Ci-Cones, 
who ioup;ht with Ulysses and with his Greeks. Their territory 
was, at ancient periods, called Galaica, and in the time of 
Herodotus, Briantica*, or Gallic and Brigantic, the middle 
Q being often melted and dropt in old names. This afi:brds 
presumptive testimony, and strong of its kind, that the 
Cz-Cones (or hither Cones) were Gauls and Brigantes — the 
Gomeritap of whom the Western CeltcD were formed. 

* Lib, 7. 107. 



128 



Perhaps Mythology may offer us some hints respedling the 
cmigiation of the Geltae to tlie West, which took place long 
before the commencement of profane history. The Centimani 
were ordered to depart fj-om the neighbourhood of Thrace, 
into the lower regions. They obeyed the decree without 
resistance. Some time afterwards, their relations, the Giants 
xvho had strengthened themselves in the country, were subdued 
in war, and compelled to follow them. EKurovp^n^oi, Centi- 
manus, or a man with a hundred hands, beheld at a distance, 
through the mist of antiquity, presents a monstrous figure, but 
the chara6ler was once new, and must have had so,me resem- 
blance in nature. I think these names were translate4 from 
the Celtic. 

CanJIaw, in Welsh, from Cant, a hundred, and Llaw, ji 
handy signifies A Patron, Counsellor, or Advocate, 

Tlie oldest political establishment known amongst the 
Celtae, was the Cantrev, or community of a hundred families. 
The Canllaw, Centimanus, seems to have been the chief or 
patron of such a community. 

The subdued Titans were committed to the care of 
Centimani. This may imply no more than that they also 
were constituted into regular societies, and settled under 
similar chiefs of then' own. But to return. 

As the Japetida divided the Isles of the Gentiles, in their 
lands, after their families, each of those families must hav^ 
known its portion, to which it could plead a just claim.— 
Upon the arrival of the Conian or Kynetian family in Europe, 
they found the portion of Javan lying to the South, and 
reaching to the mountains of Thrace. Riphath was pitching 
Ms tents on the North of the Danube, about the Carpathian 



129 

hills. One branch of Togarmah's family seating itself on the 
banks of the Borysthenes (the nurse of Targitaus^ or Thor- 
Gut^ their great ancestor) and beginning to possess the inter- 
mediate region. 

The family o^Ashkenaz did not find^ in this neighbourhood^ 
that ample patrimony which they could retain in peace, and 
leave to their children for ever. Their portion lay far to the 
West, and the way, as yet, was open for them to go in search 
of it. Part of them accordingly did set out upon that expe- 
dition. After they had reached their destined acquisitions, 
they still retained their generic name, for Herodotus* places 
the Cynetae in the Western extremities of Europe, beyond the 
Celtae. As the Danube rises in the countr}^ of the CeltcR, 
viewed by him/it is probable that he means the EaUerii Gauls; 
we must therefore look for his Cynetae, amongst the Western 
branches of the Celtic, 

The name is acknowledged by the ancient Britons. 

Taliesin, a bard of the 6th century, in a poem which he 
addresses to Urien, prince of Reged, calls his countrymen 
CT/n-wys, or Echen Gynwys — the nation of the Cyn-men. — 
Cyn, in British, implying the first y the foremost part, regularly 
foims Cynet, for its plural, both in the Welsh and in the 
Armorican. It may be contracted familiarly to Cynt, 

Aneurim, Taliesin*s contemporary, in the conclusion of his 
Gododin, distributes the Celtse of the British Islands into 
^' Cynt, a Gwyddil a Fhrydin'^ The Cynt, the Irish and 
the North Britons, making the Ci/nt or Cynet, the first of the 
Celtic families. Amongst our old British Kings we find 
CyndaVj Cynetav, &c. 

* L. IV. 49. 

I 



130 

From tlie descendants then of Aahkenaz, in mj opinion^ 
sprung the original Celt(B of the Wcst^ who anciently possessed 
the whole of Gaul^ the Islands of Britain^ 'part of Germany, 
and part of Spain. 

But a considerable body of this people did not leave their 
Eastern possessions in peace. After the removal of the 
Centimani^ these remains of the Celtae were distinguished by 
the name of Titans. They had perhaps been joined by the 
real Titanian Celtce, Celto-Scytha^, or those branches of the 
Celtic family who had assisted in building the tower of Babel, 
and had been compelled, at the dispersion, to follow their 
brethren. They seem to have mustered a formidable power 
against those who deemed themselves the lawful possessors of 
Asia Propria, of Thrace and of Macedon*. 

The wars, in those countries, between the Gods and the 
Titans are themes of the ancient poets. The descriptions of 
them contain many particulars, borrowed from antecedent 
events and dates. They belong to the original dispersion of 
the Giants from Babel. But there is a degree of local con- 
sistency in the accounts, which compel me to infer, that a 
national history is at the bottom. And I am happy to find 
this, which has long been my opinion, confirmed by that of 
a writer and a critic whose learning and abilities cannot be 
€4iough admired. 

Mr, Pennf has some excellent remarks upon ^^ Those frag- 



* It was in the chaiafler of a Titan that Japctus *' married Asia," or that, 
Jn other words, a branch of his family took possession of the fraall distrift, 
anciently known by that name, which comprehended little more than Phrygia, 
and a part of Lydia. The first-born son of this marriage was Allai^ Qt ihc 
eldest branch of the family were Atlantes. 

Alias was the General of the Titan army against Jupiter, Hyg'n. Fab. 150. 

t Oiient, Coll. V. 1. p. 265. 



131 



merits of tradition which connedl the original occupants of 
Greece with the Celtic stock/' 

He demonstrates that Celtic terms are still preserv^ed in the 
Orphic Hymns, and quotes the following authorities, in which 
the Titans are acknowledged as the old Inliabitants, and 
which prove^ that, in them, we find the parents of the Celtas. 

TtT>jv£f, yu^v|q t'e, KUi ov^avov ccyKdcc rexya, 
H|X£T£gfc;i/ -ttTpoyovoi 'cra.TE^iirv. Orph. H. 30. 1. 

Titans, illustrious sons of Earth and Heav'n, 
Our Sires* Progenitors 

"Bu^Qa^iXYiVj xai KEATON uvocq'rtqccvrsq A^r.cc, 

'Puqovroii. Callim. H, in Del. 1^2. 

*' Against the Greeks, then shall a future race 
Of Titans, pouring from the utmost West, 
Raise the barbaric sword and Celtic war." 

To this I may add, that the old poets regarded the Titans 
as the original and primitive race of mankind. Hence 
Orpheus says, 

E| vy.im yec^ nffec^et 1S^£^£^ yivsot. kxtx xo^/vioy, H. In Tltanas. 

From jou are all the tribes throughout the world. 

AvToqxen «r|0T£gi5 yfi/Eij. Arati. Phsenom. l6. 

Oi ^£ 'KT^oTE^av ytveocv fovq Tit«vaj i^ajt. Schoh in Lor, 

Some call the Titans the first race. 

I 2 



132 

The names by which the}^ were known^ yv^yBVci^, Terrigetia, 
Sons of the Earthy imply that^ generally speaking, they were 
Jndige?i(B. Titanes may be a synonymous term. Tit, in 
Hebrew and in Celtic signifies Earth, and in the latter Hanu, 
Geni^ Eni — to spring forth, to be born. 

These Titans, the sons of the lieaven and the Earth, or of 
the Climate and the Country, and the parents of the Celtae, 
according to Hesiod's account, were driven into the lower 
part of the Earth, into a land alread}^ inhabited by some of 
their brethren. They must therefore have been such branches 
of the family as had staid behind, and had, by force, kept 
possession of a land, intended only as a thoroughfare, but 
were compelled, at length, to follow the rest. 

Tlie arch of the Heavens was placed upon the shoulders of 
Atlas, the chief of the Titans. The fable perhaps only inti- 
mates, that he w^as driven to the lower or Western region 
which, according to mythology, supported Heaven. It was 
to the ISorth West that Atlas appears to have been doomed. — 
Apollodorus, correcting authors who had written before him, 
concerning the Hesperidcs, direds us to look for Atlas, not in 
Lybia, but amongst the Hyperboreans. Ta^ra ^e yiv, ovx i^i rmg^ 
evJS.iQvri, «M Wt rov AnrT^ccvToq tv v-OTEgCo^sotj. L. 2. C. 4. § 11. 

And again — u<; h yx^i ek t'mt^Qo^iov;, treo? ArXavra. In searching 
for Atlas, Hercules proceeds through Illyricum to the River 
Eridanus, shaping his course tow^ards the land of the Celtae, 
whom Heraclides of Pontus calls Hyperboreans. Plutarch, 
in Camillo. 

Atlas w^as not then amongst the African but the Celtic 
IJbi/i, Lebici or Libici, a people of Gallia Transpadana, 
descendants of the Salui (Liv) perhaps of the S'Alpii, the 



133 



same as tlie Tanrini, Cottii or Lepontiiy in wbose territory 
the Rhine sprung. 

The descendants of the Titanian Japetidie may I think be 
recognized in the Waldenses, the Irish, and the Brigantes. — > 
Many proofs may be given that a Cekic diale6tj aUied nearly 
to the Irish/ once prevailed in Tln'ace. But 1 shall have oc- 
casion to resume that subjedl. 



In the mean time^ I would offer a few remarks upon the 
Goths or Germans, who are sometimes confounded with our 
Celtai;; because they acquired possession of the same countries j 
but who were a different people, the conquerors of the Celtaej, 
and eventually the Lords of all Western Europe, 

Mr. Pinkerton, who has made the history of this people the 
subje6l of his research, delivers it as his opinion, that Asia 
gave them birth. To his learned Dissertation I request the 
attention of the reader, for proof that the Goths, the Getae of 
Thrace, and Scythians of Little Tartary were the same. 

The Getge were,' to a late period, seated in a confined part 
of Thrace, where their manners, and their opinions distinr 
guished them from the other inhabitants. See Herod, ,L. IV. 

The appellation of Scythians, as used by the Greeks, 
throws little, if any light upon the origin of a people. Some 
authors distinguished fifty nations of that name*, many of 



* Timonax De Scyihis. Ap. Schol, in Apoll. Argon. IV. v. 320. The 
Cinan:ierii, amongst others, were distinguished by this name, Kt/A/As-Piot— Ta 
7:)cv^iKov i^voq, Eustath. In Dionys. v. 167,, 



134 



whom perhaps were strangers to it. This was the case with 
our European Scythians. " Tiiey called themselves Scoloti^ 
after one of their Kings; but the Greeks named them 
Scytha^. Herod. IV. 6. 

If, by the genuine Scythae, we are to understand^ with some 
respedable writers, the old Giants of Babel, it is evident from 
the whole tenor of the Edda, that the Goths considered theni' 
selves as a race perfedlly distinct from them : with Giants, 
answering this description, their Gods and their Heroes were 
avowedl}^ acquainted, but held them in such abhorrence, that 
it was deemed meritorious to violate solemn oaths, treaties and 
the sacred law^s of hospitality, that favourite impulse of the 
nation, where a Giant was concerned, or secretly to murder 
him in cold blood. 

Perhaps the real Scythae, who were dispersed from Babel_, 
over the face of the Earth, intermixed more or less with theu' 
relations, in every country ; but as the connection was gene- 
rally esteemed a disgrace, few nations would own it, or find 
them at home. They would rather seem to discover them, at 
^ little distance^ or amongst neighbours. 

The account which the Scoloti gave of their own origin, 
was, Tliat when the country was yet uninhabited, one 
Targitaus son of the River Borysthenes ( i. e. whose patrimony 
lay upon that Iliver) settled there, and that they were 
descended fi'om the youngest of his three sons — that, of all 
nations, they were the most recent, and that not more than a 
thousand years had elapsed between the time of their founder 
Targitaus, and the expedition of Darius. Herod. IV. 5, 6, 

We cannot much depend upon the accuracy of their chro- 
nology; but as they were foud of Glory, such a talc, related 



t 



k 



135 



by themselves^ must prove that no distinguished name wai 
due to them^ amongst the early nations of Europe. 

Their first estahhshment^ however, in that country, seems 
to have been at least as early as they represented its date.— 
Their peculiar custom of milking their mares, whish HerodGtus 
describes with some Greek embellishments, gave them the 
name of Hippe-moJgi or Mare-milkers. They had also the 
Epithet of Galactophagi or Milk-eaters, because they agitated 
the milk, till it was churned or coagulated, and then eat the 
part that was concrete. lb. lY. 2. 

By these names. Homer describes them, as knowTi in the 
age of the Trojan w^ar. At the beginning of the 13th Iliad, 
Jupiter turns his eyes from the combatants before Troy. He 
views in succession, Thrace, the land of the Mysi (near the 
Danube) the Hippemolgi, illustrious Milk-eaters, and lastly, 
the Abii, or those of the Cimmerii, who dwelt be^^ond them. 

As these countries lay in regular succession, upon the Eu- 
ropean side of the Euxine, the Hippemolgi, according to 
Homer's geography, were already seated near the Borysthenes, 
the nurse of their ancestor Targitaus, and in the ancient 
Scythia of Herodotus. But as yet they w^ere neither ^ 
powerful nor an extensive race in Europe. 

The chief part of European Scythia had been possessed by 
the Cimmerii, and had been distinguished by their name. — 
These Cimmerii were probably a devious branch of Ashkenaz, 
the parent stock. They possessed not only the celebrated 
Crimea and the neighbourhood of the Bosphorus, whicli 
preserves their name, but the land on the South of ancient 
Scythia, towards the Tyra and the Danube : For on tlie bank 
of the Tyra, lay the monuments of the Cimmerii^ wdio liac^ 



136 

fallen in a political and great confli^i;, whicli had arisen in 
their territories*. From thence, and flying from the Scythians 
into Asia^ the survivors took then* course to the Cimmerian 
Bosphorus* ^ 

We have hut little account of the state of this people as a 
society,, but the defence of their country by walls, or a chain 
of ramparts, points them out as a race, comparatively 
civilized^ and assiduously cultivating the arts of peace. 

The time they were dispossessed by the Scythians may be 
ascertained. A branch of this people who had occupied the 
Southern shore of the Caspian sea, being harassed by the 
Massa-Getae, retired across the Araxes and penetrated into 
the country of their European brethren. Upon the irrup- 
tion of this multitude, the Cimmerii were thrown into con- 
sternation. Their princes took up arms to defend their 
country; but the populace, who, perhaps, were held in the 
same estimation as in Gaul, thought it a country not worth a 
contest, and formed the resolution to emigrate. The debates 
in their councils ended in a battle, and the Cimmerii were 
either beaten by the Scytha?, or, as Herodotus relates it, their 
princes,, and multitudes of their people fell by mutual wounds. 
The survivors^ having buried their dead, on tiie banks of the 
Tyra, took their flight over the Cimmerian Bosphorus into 
Asia, and the Scythai took possession of the territories that 
were thus deserted. Unwilling, however, to part with so 
many vassals, they pursued the fugitives, but mistaking their 
way, they left Mount Caucasus upon the right, and, by a 
circuitous course, penetrated into Media. Falling upon the 
army of Deioces, King of the Medes, they obtained a complete 
victory over him, and their spoil was the Sovereignty of Asia, 
whicli they held for twenty-eight years. 

*lb. IV. u. 



137 

The unanimous voice of Chronologists, places that engage- 
ment^ at the period of itbout 630 ytav?, before Christ, 

As to the other events, namely— the irruption of the 
Scythians — the battle — the flight of the Cimmerians^ and 
pursuit of their enemies, they must in the course of things 
have followed in rapid succession. 

The Scythse cannot then have been completely invested 
with Cimmeria, the first considerable distn6t which they held 
in Europe, before the middle of the seventh Century before 
Christ. 

Nor was it before the Scythians returned from Asia, that a 
fonnidable aspe6t could have been presented by them, in the 
Western continent. 

It appears that none but such as were disqualified by old 
age, or tender years, had been exempted from attendance 
upon the army. In the absence of the men, their women, 
whom they had left behind them, found it necessary to rein- 
force the population, by the intercourse of their blind slaves, 
the general condition of a Scythian captive. By the offspring 
of that intercourse, theireturn of the Veterans from Asia was 
resolutely opposed. No masters had been left at home to 
controul the licentiousness of the matrons, or to render the 
spurious race harmless in war. Till the return, therefore, of 
this army, about 600 years before Christ, the Scythian power 
could not have been felt in European states, beyond the 
territories of the Eastern Cimmerii. 

Even to the time of Herodotus, the Getae had been pent up 
in a corner of Thrace ; and the whole district of the S. ythaj 
formed a square of about ^00 miles every way, but indented 



138 



by the North West corner of the Euxine sea. It scarce 
extended its western course, beyond the boundaries of Little 
Tartary and Moldavia. They had not yet, in their progress, 
turned the corner of the Surmatse. 

It was not then, till after they had successfully derided the 
menaces of Darius, and baffled the accumulated force of the 
Persian Empire, that we find them beginning to meditate the 
sovereignty of Europe. 

The name of Asi or Asiatics, that honourable distindion of 
the Gothic heroes, in the North-west of Europe, was perhaps, 
rather a commemoration of the fame they had gained in the 
vi6}ory over Deioces, than of their Asiatic origin, which at 
least was more obscure, and of which their ancestors had 
preserved no tradition, when Herodotus wrote. 

The general tradition of a people is seldom to be wholly 
despised. If the Scythians represented themselves as natives 
of Little Tartary, their descendants, the Goths, boast of the 
acquisition of Germany, and the North West of Europe, by 
their vidories over other tribes. Mallet's Northern Antiq. 
V. 1. chap. IV. 

The time when they first penetrated into these regions is? 
^lot known ; but they date their decided superiority in them 
from the age of their invincible leader, Odin, whose expe- 
dition Torfoeus and M. Mallet place about 70 years before 
Christ. lb. c. ii. 



139 



Sect. II. Jjitiquiti/ of the Druidical order, amongst tht 
Cdt(Z — Specimens of Druidical traditions preserved hy the 
Welsh — Remarks upon them — The professors of Druidism 
anciently knorcn hy the name of Jlyperhoreans, 

JL HE in'uption of the Goths into tlie territories of 
the Western Celta?, being an event comparatively recent, 
could have had nothing to do with the national habits, or 
national institutes of the latter. We niiist therefore distinguish 
the Celtic establishment Druidism, from the Gothic mysticism 
of the Edda, 

The order of Druids, under that name, do not appear to 
have been traced, or known, out of Gaul and tlie Islands of 
Britain. The name seems to have belonged exclusively to 
the British order, and to have extended only where that order 
was acknowledged. The original and primitive inhabitants of 
this Island, at some remote period of antiquity, revised and 
reformed their national institutes. Tbeir priest or instru6lor 
had hitherto been simply named Czcyz or Gwydd, as the term 
is retained by Taliesin — '^ Bum Gwydd yngwarthan.'* But 
it was deemed adviseable, to divide the sacred office between 
the national or superior priest, and a subordinate chara6ier, 
whose influence was more limited. From henceforth, the 
former became Dcr-wydd or Druid, which, in the language 
of the people to whom we owe the tenn, is a compound of 
Dar, Superior, and Gwydd, a Priest or Inspector : The latter 
was Go'Wydd or Ovydd, a Subordinate I nsti'uclor; and was 
sometimes called Syw or Sy-wydd^ names familiar to the 
Bards, Taliesin and Aneurin, 



140 

These very terms^ as well as Greeks and Romans could 
spell them^ have been recognized by the oldest people and 
religion of Europe, and in that very country from whence 
the Celtae came. 

" Coies, or according to some, CoeSi a priest of the Cabiri." 

" Samothraces. horum (penatium) antistites. Sues vocabant, qui 
postea, a Romanis, Salii appellati sunt." Ser^viusj ad ^n. ii. 

The name then of Druid was local, but the Religion had 
a very deep root. Indeed under this name, the influence and 
audiority of the order once extended over the whole of GauL 
It covered this extent of territory, as one nation. The seat of 
general concourse and Great Session, was fixed in what the 
Druids deemed a central spot* — a choice that would have 
been absurd, as well as inconvenient, if the institution had 
been confined to any particular distri6l. 

These Druids themselves were Celtce, of the Patriarchal or 
Equestrian order. Tlieir disciples were nobilissimi Gentisf, 
Sons of the noblest families in the Nation. These alone could, 
in their turn, become teachers. The order did not then 
consist of Strangers, but of the most illustrious descent which 
the Celtce could boast. They were studious to confine their 
mysteries in the Celtic pale, where their opinions were 
respedled, and exclude from them all but those who had been 
duly initiated. 



* Hi (Druidas) certo anni tempore. In finibus Carnutum, qiise regio totius 
CdllicE media habetur, consident, in loco consecrato. Hue onnies undzquc, 
qui controversias habenr, conveniunt, eorumque decretis judtciisque parent. 

Bell. Gall. VI. J3. 

t Mela iii, 2, 



141 



In Caesar's time^ the inhabitants of Gaul had been 
disturbed, in some degree, by the intercourse of strangers. 
Their sacred groves had been traversed and violated by feet, 
which they considered as profane. Dmidism, therefore, was 
not so pure in that country as in Britain, the source of 
the reformed institution, and many sons of the nobles in 
Gaul were sent hither to finish their Education. J)e, Bell. 
Gall. L. VI. 

When the Romans acquired a footing in Britain, they 
found the country possessed by two nations ; the Belgse, 
originally Celta, but somewhat intermixt with strangers, and 
an indigenous race, who declared they were born in the 
Island. The title of Native is a distinction claimed by the 
first race of a country, and justly — sl family had originally 
settled; but the «a^io« was born in the land. Amongst these 
pure descendants of the Celtae, the Druidism of Britain was in 
the highest repute. The principal seat of the order was found 
in Mono, an interior recess of that ancient race, which was 
born hi the Island. 

Into that sequestered scene, the Dmids, who detested 
warfare, had gradually retired, after the in'uption of the 
Belgse, and the further incroachment of the Romans. They 
had retired from their ancient, magnificent seat at Abury, and 
from their Circular , Uncovered Temple on Salisbury Plain, in 
which the Hyperborean sages had once chaunted tlieir hymns 
to Apollo, or Plenyz, 

An order thus cautiously withdrawing itself, into the bosom 
of its primitive nation, of whom it consisted, and for whom it 
was calculated, could not have owed its fundamental principles 
to any foreigners, or have been willing to adopt their tenets. 
The Celtae must have received this institution from their very 
earliest parents. 



142 

A mysticism similar to that of the Druids^ appears to have 
prevailed, amongst the Western Cimmerii or Celtae^ from the 
remotest antiquity. 

Some of their most prominent features were — the intercourse 
tliey held with souls, after death — the judgment which they 
passed on the a6lions of men, and the inference they drew> 
from their lives, respe6^ing the changes they would undergo^ 
and the mode of their ultimate renovation. 

In the court of Pluto, which always held its judicial seat^ 
in the land of the Celtae or Cimmerii, causes of this kind were 
determined by incorruptible Judges, and there could be no 
higher compliment paid to the most sacred chara6lers, than to 
enrol them into this high trust of Judicature. We read of 
three personages thus promoted, each of whom appears, from 
his birth, from his place of nativity, and from the history of 
his life, to have been eminent as a Kojjj. 

When Homer sends Ulysses to consult the dead, he does 
not make him touch upon the celebrated shores of Eg3'pt or 
Phoenicia, though he had sailed by them. He diredls him to 
the coast of the Western Ocean — to Portugal or Spain — to the 
land of the Cimmerii or Celta, and the Dominions of Pluto 
or Dis, whom the Celtae acknowledged as their father. In 
this devious course, the poet must have been guided by 
ancient and prevailing opinion. 

The descent of ^neas into the Regions below, in which he 
learns the mysteries of the Metempsychosis, the fortunes — the 
changes — the renovations of his descendants — Do6lrines of 
pure Druidism — is from a part of Italy, in which, not only 
the researches of Strabo, but, perhaps, Virgil himself placed 
one branch of the Cimmerii. 



143 



This great Bard was born in Cis- Alpine Gaul, and seems, 
in his youth, to have courted tlae Gaulish Muse, till be found 
that she would not advance his fortune — a very unpoetical 
ground of desertion — 



Galatea reliqult: 



Namque — fatebor enim — dum me Galatea tenebat. 
Nee spes libertatis erat, nee eura peeuli, 

'*' Galatea was the mother of the Celtse." Appian. Bell. Illyr. 

The same poet mentions the Gallicum Tau, in a passage of 
his Cataleda, which Ausonius, the Gaulish Bard, proposes 
as an senigma to his learned friends. This Tau was the 
symbol of the Druidical Jupiter. It consisted of a huge, 
giant oak, deprived of all its branches, except only two large 
ones, which, though cut off and separated, were suspended 
from the top of its trunk, like extended arms^. 

Whether, from these passages, we do, or do not infer that 
Virgil had studied in the mysticism of Druid lore, he, at 
least, intimates clearly, in the Sixth ^neid, that he was 
touching upon Druidical mysteries. 

It was necessary the hero should obtain a branch of 
misseltoe, as the means of his introduction to the court of 
Pluto. The poet minutely describes this plant, but instead of 
risking a full explanation, by fixing its name, he says it 
resembled the misseltoe. 

Diseolor unde auri per ramos aura refulsit. 
Quale solet sylvis, brumali frigore, viscum 



* See Borlasc p. 108, for the authorities. 



144 

Fronde virere nova', quod non sua seminat arbor> 

Et croceo foetu teretes circumdare truncos ; 

Talis erat species auri frondentis, opaca 

llice. Mn. VI. 204. 

This was not only misseltoe, but the misseltoc of the oak, 
which few, besides iEneas and the Druids, have had the good 
fortune to find. The Prince was directed in his search for it, 
by those sacred birds which ' fed upon its fruit, and in whom 
the seed was again prepared, for future vegetation. 

All the accounts of Orpheus agree with Druidism : and we 
could expe6l no less; for the Celtae or Cimmerii were the first 
inhabitants of the country in which Orpheus flourished, and 
some of them continued their abode, in the same region, till 
this renowned charadler was no more. 

Eusebius mentions an irruption of the Cimmerii into Asia, 
about 100 years after the war of Troy, and Eustathius, alluding 
to this irruption, in his comment upon Dionysius, quotes the 
authority of Arrian for proof, " That not only the Mysi and 
Phiyges, but also the Thracians went out of Europe into Asia, 
with Patarus their leader, when the Cimmerii oyer-ran 
Asia." Under this Generic name, then, the tribes of Thrace 
iad hitherto been included. 

Herodotus, L. TV. 13. cites the testimony of Aristeas the 
Procon7iesian, that the Cimmerii had once dwelt tvrt m -^Tt»j 
$aXa??y>, ^' On the South sea," or ^^ On the South side of the 
sea" till tliey left that country, when disturbed by the 
Scythians, who were pushed forwards by other Northern 
invaders. — ^This Aristeas lived before Homer. 

Under the name of Orpheus, who flourished in so many 



145 



ages, and taught so many things, may be midersto^d, a sacved 
order of men, similar to the IMagi, the Druids, and others.— 
This celebrated character is represented as having lost Ids wife. 
The wife of an order of Sages would, in tlie language of 
mythology, imply their Science, their doclrine or their dis- 
cipline. The very name Eurijdice, which appears to be a 
compound of Er^y? Latus, and ^iKr,^ mos jure receptus, will 
perhaps justify a conjecture, that in the image of Orpheus' 
wife, is typified his compreliemive discipline. 

The bereft husband goes not in searcii of his wife, intjo 
Phoenicia, Egypt, Chaldea or India. He descends into the 
Dominions of Pluto, into the Country of the Cimmerii or 
Celtae; though Virgil, to diversify his piciare, sends him to 
the Cimmerii who dwelt upon the North of the Euxine. — ■ 
Amongst them, Orpheus discovered his Eurydice, and might 
have restored her to Thrace, if he had not failed in a material 
part of his probation. 

It is acknovv^ledged that such tales are not History; but they 
are founded upon traditions of the mythological and heroic 
ages — traditions which existed long before Greece could boast 
of a single historian, and which uniformly intimate, that a 
mystical do6trine, similar to that which Druids of the historical 
ages are known to have taught, had prevailed amongst the 
Celtae, or Cimmerii of Europe, from the remotest periods. 

These are some of the reasons which induce me to be of 
opinion, that our Druids, either under that name, or the more 
ancient and general appellations of Bards and Gwyddion, had 
been the wise men of the W^est, ever since that continent was 
first peopled ; and that our Celtic parents brought the funda- 
mentals of their religion, when diey imported their own 
persons and families, into Gaul: though, at later periods, 
thoy modified some particulars, and adopted some innovations. 



146 

The monuments^ now remaining, of the Celtae, are such 

as can be ascribed only to an original and primitive race. 

Their Cromlechs, their Logans, the rough pillars, that are 
still found, as well in Britain, as upon those parts of the 
Continent which the Celtse once occupied, are the erections 
of an early age, or at least, of a people who had retained the 
simplicity of patriarchal times. 

Tlie inhahitants of Syria, taken in its most ample extent, 
ereSied unhewn pillars in their sacred groves : — they had, 
therefore, once, a custom that was common to them^ with 
many other primitive nations. 

But had the works at Ahury or Stonehenge displayed their 
rude magnificence, in Syria, in Egypt, Chaldea or India — 
not in Britain; critical discernment would have pronounced 
them, of antiquity superior to that of sculptured and lettered 
co'lumns, the pyramids and their highly polished marbles, or 
any other surviving miracles of those renowned and opulent 
countries. 

. To those antiquai'es, who ascribe our British monuments t« 
any Eastern race whatsoever,! would therefore take the hberty 
of recommending a more accurate regard for historical truth. 

Works like these must have been formed, in the taste of 
tb age, and the country, of their coiistrutiors. ISone would 
have taken such incredible pains to exhibit, in a land of 
strangers, a mode and style of architedure which had become 
obsuiccc ill their own; and which then- ancestors had aban- 
doned for a touise of aGies. 



*o" 



These monuments, thus rude in their workmanship, display 
that species of tirtat and Swiple united, which is the cha- 



147 

racier of such designs, at an early age. They must therefore 
have been the work of the natives, not of otiiers. For, 
however the arts may have sunk in the later Celtoe, their 
patriarch, as well as tlie father of the Egyptian, Chaldean or 
Indian, was the son of a civilized family : and in the line of 
his descendants, the science of the Noachidcz was, unques- 
tionably, in great measure, preserved. 

If the Celtae then wanted artificers to execute with elegance, 
they could not want masters of design, or of power to devise 
plans of edifices like these, with judgment and skill. 

The nature of Druidical traditions demonstrate, that the 
Druids were Celtae, and that their progenitors had been 
present with this nation from its very source. Thus, for 
instance, we are told by C^sar — '^ Galli se omncs ah Ditc 
pat?'e prognatos prcedicant, idque a Druidibus proditum 
dicunty The Gauls affirm that Fluto or Bh was their 
common progenitor, and refer this account of themselves to 
the tradition of the Druids. 

Had the original Druids been any other than Celtae or 
Gauls, they would rather have preserved the histoi'y or tradi- 
tion of their own origin. They could have given no account 
o^ the father of a nation whom they found, already formed. 
But this was a Celtic and national tradition, and such as 
could not have been preserved by strangers. 

Yet so much were the Druids interested in this account, 
that we find tliem providing for its perpetuit}- by incorporating 
it with a national custom, and thus impressing upon the mass 
of the people, the memory of their descent — '' Oh cam 
causam, spatia omnis tcmporis, non numero dicrum sed 
fJocTiUM, Jiniunt : dies natalcs, et mcnsium et annorunt 
iinitia, sic observant, ut noctem dies subscquaturj^ 



14S 

The custoiil of measuring periods^ by the number of nights^ 
in preference to that of days, may not have been pecuhar to 
the Cekge: but the inference they drew from it is clear— ^ 
That in the West their common ancestor found his portion 
assigned* 

In order to shew the nature and the authenticity of tliis 
account, respecting the origin of the Gauls, it will not be 
improper to observe, that, under the charadler of Saturn, 
the heathens preserved the history of Noah. Saturn divided 
the world amonirst his three sons. The eldest of these was 
Dis or Pluto, and for his share he had Europe — the Western 
or lower region. Thus he became the parent of the first 
Europeans, and consequently of the Gauls, 

This exactly fails into the Mosaic histoiy. 

The whole Earth was divided between three sons of Noah. 
Japheth, who was the eldest of them, inherited Europe, or 
the Isles of the Gentiles. He was therefore progenitor of the 
Gauls* 

Here we have a real history which the Druids, as Celta?, 
preserved, ever since the period of the primary allotment : 
and the device by which it was imprest, prevails amongst the 
Welsh to this day. They call a week, wyth-nos, Eight nights: 
a fortnight, pi/thewnos, Fifteen nights — that is, they circwn^ 
scribe their periods by the night on which they commence and 
expire, according to tlie usage of the ancient Gauls. 

" But what — it may be asked — is the peculiar connection 
between the night and the portion of Dis f" 

I answer, that, as the whole of Europe lay diredly west of 



149 

Asia, it was overshadowed by the darkness of the night, when 
the morning cirose upon the Eastern habitations of the 
Noachidse : and the evening sun would appear to descend, in 
its progress towards the western continent, as to a lower sphere. 
Hence the portion of Japheth, or of Dis, obtained the 
description of a lower Region — the land of Shades and of 
Night, 

Such was the land of the Cimerii, the children of Bis. 

It has frequently been remarked, that, in the general 
mysticism of the Druids, and in many of their customs, there 
is close analogy to those of the Magi, the Brachmans, the 
Egyptian Priests, &c. I do not deny the fa6t, but I conceive 
that these traits of analogy were impressed upon mankind^ 
before the families of the Earth were divided. And I cannot 
but regret, that when pains have been taken, and Fancy 
called in, to shew what the Aborigines of Europe maij have 
borrowed' from the East, it has hardly been the objed of a 
moment's attention, amongst the learned, in this peculiar 
class, to ascertain what those Europeans had of their own. — 
Many of the fundamental customs, and inveterate opinions 
of the Celtae, appear to have been once universal. 1 would, 
not therefore, unless compelled by the unequivocal decree of 
historical proof, refer them to any 'particular source. And, 
as to their general mysticism, I have quoted already a well 
accredited fragment of Sanchoniathon, which contains the 
elements of all the mystical theology in the ancient world. — 
It is there told us, that the History, Theology and Philosophy 
of the first ages had been converted into mystic allegories, 
and this, at so early a period, that Isiris, or Miz7'aim, tlie 
Brother of Canaan, was amongst those who received diem in 
that form. The Patriarchs of the other Nations, whedier irj 
the East or in the West, had an equal opportunity of doin^ 
the s^^e, 

K,3 



150 

But, if it must be iiisisted upon, that a chain of communi- 
cation united the Magi, Brachmans anil our Druids, it must, 
I think, be a chain drawn through Asia Minor, and Thrace 
or Macedon, the.countries through Avhich the Celtse came, 
and in which tradition acknowledges the remains of their 
family and religion. 



The Druids are not represented as Inventors, They were 
the jealous preservers of early and primitve discipline, tradi- 
tions, do6lrines, customs and opinions. Their method of 
in^trudlion was by symbols and by enigmas, or dark allegories*, 
by ancient songs, and maxims orally delivered, and in 
private; but which they deemed it unlawful to reduce into 
writing, or communicate out of their own palef. 

Of the lessons thus habitually, and by system, concealed, 
few specimens are to be found in ancient authors. Mela, 
iL. iii. c. 2. has preserved one of them. 

llmm ex Us qu^ pr^cipiunt in vulgus offluxit ; Videlicet— * 

*« Ut forent ad bella meliores ; 
setcrnas esse animas, 
vitamque alteram ad manes." 

Oiie of thtsir precepts has becom*e public, namely, that 
■which bids them remember — 

" to ad bravely In war ; 
that souls are immortal, 
and there is another life after death.'* 

0-r . *>. ■«. — ■ — ■■ I- I. ■ , ...i.. I ■ . » ■ J .. .. . .» 

* Diog. Laert. L. C. Seg. 6. 
+ Cscs. De Bel. Gal. L. VI. Mela L, iii. «. 



151 

Diog. Laertius presents us with another^ 

SsCety Qtovi;, 

HCCl {ATjhv XUX.OV ^^ccv^ 

To worship the Gods, 

to do no evil, 

and to exercise fortitude. 

Both of these precepts are Triads; and we may hence con-^ 
jediure, that such was the general form of their moral and 
historical instru(^tions. Ausonius, who respe(ited, and seems 
occasionally to imitate the Bards of his country, has a whole 
poem of Triads, 

The philosophy, the comprehension and good sense of the 
sentences before us, are such as to inspire a wish, that we 
could obtain sometliing more, from the hand of those masters. 

Amongst the descendants of those who were professors of 
Druidism, it T^ould not be unreasonable to expe^l: this gratifi-^ 
cation. A national institute, which liad been so deeply rooted, 
was not likely to be obliterated from the memory and regard 
of the people. 

The interdid of Gallic Councils would, of itself, prove the 
lingering obstinacy of Druidism, amongst the people of Gaul, 
to the end of the sixth century — " Veneratores lapidum, 
accensores facularum, et excolentes sacra fontium et arborum, 
admonemus"* — Concil. Turon. A. D. 067. 

.n - J ■ »• ■ « ■ ... » — . ■ .■ '■■•■. -— — 1 — —' 

* Sec Borlase p. jio, 121-2,. 



152 

111 Biitaln^ it continued longer stilly as appears from the 
Law of Canute — Prohibemus etiam serio — quod quis adoret 
Ignem vel F/ avium, Tor reus vel Saxa vel alicujus generis 
arbor am Ligna. — Wilkiiis, Leg. Ang. Sax. p. 134. 

These were not Roman or Gothic^ but Celtic superstitions, 
of Druidism. 

He who is at all conversant with the remains of ancient 
JVelsh literature, cannot be at a loss for the reason of these 
prohibitory Laws. Our oldest authors avow the most pious 
veneration for the Druids — give themselves credit, as initiated 
into their mysteries, and profess to deliver their genuine maxims 
and traditions. 

As Druidism had so many real, though concealed partizans, 
long after its public authority was abolished, may we not 
suppose, that s6me attempts would be made, when the use of 
the pen was no longer interdi6led, to cherish and preserve its 
most valuable relics ? 

This order, for instance, taught the people something of 
their own history. The conversion of the native to the 
Keligion of Christ, could not have rendered that history 
uninteresting. The people would naturally wish to perpetuate 
some account of their ancient independence. Accordingly 
we find, amongst the oldest Welsh manuscripts, many his- 
torical notices upon the model of the Druidical Triads^ and 
purporting to be the remains of Druidical ages. 

Their contents furnish, in my opinion, strong evidence in 
support of their autiicnticity. I cannot account for them at 
all upon other gi ounds. Many collections of these Triads are 
picscrvcd, at this day, in old copies upon vellum. 



153 



^our of these copies,, beside transcripts upon paper, were 
eollated for the Welsh ArchcEologi/. London. 1801. 

The old copies, now preserved, are not immediately taken 
from one, original colleClion. They vaiy in the selection, 
the number and the order of their Triads. But when the same 
Triad occurs, in different copies, it is given to the same effect 
and, generally, in the same words. We must not then look 
to known authors, for the origin of these records. Like the old 
histories oi Greece, colle6led by Apollodorus, they must be 
carried further back, to remote periods and primitive traditions. 

I shall now lay before my Header, a short selection, 
translated from a series, in the second volume of the Wehh 
Arch<zology, p. 57. 

That series bears the following title. 

^^ These are Triads of the Island of Britain — that is to say. 
Triads of memorial and record, and the information of re- 
markable men or things, which have been in the Island of 
Britain ; and of the events which befel the Race of the 
Cymry, from the age of ages." 

To the copy, from which a transcript was made for the 
London edition, the following note is annext. 

(Translation.) " These Triads were taken from the book 
of Caradoc of Nantgarvan, and from the book of Jevan 
Brechva, b}^ me, Thomas Jones of Tregaron — and these arc 
all I could c;et oitlie three hundred — 1601."* 



* Caradoc of Nantgarvan, or Llangarvan, aboveraentioned, as the copyist 
©fone of Jonci's originals, lived aboui the middle of the twelfth century,— 



154 

I. The three pillars of the Kace of the Island of Britaisr. 

The firsts IIu Gaucmi, who first brought the Race of the 
Cvmry into the Island of Britain ; and they came from the 
landofifat) called Dejrobmd [where Constantinople standsf] 
and they passed over xMorTawchJ (the German ocean) to 
the Island of Britain^ and to Llydaw§, where they iemamed. 

The second, Pr^dain, the son of Aedd^Mawr, who first 
established regal government in the Island of Britain [Before^ 
this, there was no Eqaity but what was done by gentleness, 
nor any Law but that of force.] 

The tjvird, ByvnwaUMoelmud, who first discriminated the. 
laws and ordinances, customs and privileges of the land 
und of the nation. [And for these reasons they were called 
the three pillars of the nation of the Cymry-] (4) 

II. The three benevolent tribes of the Island of Britain.. 

The first were the stock of the Cymry j who came, witli 
Hu Gadarn, into the Island of Britam: for He would not 
have lands by fighting and contention, but of Equity, and in 
peace. 

Jevan Brechva wrote a Compendium of the Welsh Annals down to 1 150. 

N. B. The BguVes annext, refer to their order in the London edition. 

+ The passages inclosed between hooks appear to be comments upon the 
•riginal Triads, added by some ancient copyists. 

J The Coritani lay upon MSr Tatucht it was therefore upon the East of 
Britain — 

^ Letavia or Lexovia, the Water-side. This name is confined, at this day, 
to the description of Britany ; but it covered, anciently, the entire coast of 
Gaul. 



155 



The second were the race of the Lolegrwys^, who came 
from the land of Gwas-gwyn^ and^ were sprmig from the 
primitive stock of the Cymry. 

The third were the Britons. They came from tlie land of 
Llydaw, and were also sprung from the primordial line of the 
Cymry. 

[And they are called the three peaceful tribes^ because they 
came by mutual consent and permission, in peace and tran- 
quillity. — ^The three tribes descended from the primitive race 
of the Cymry, and the three were of one language and one 
speech. (5) 

III. Three tribes came, under prote(9:ion, into the Island 
of Britain, and by the consent and permission of the nation 
of the Cymry, without weapon, without assault. 

The first was the tribe of the Caledonians, in the North. 

The second was the Gwyddelian Race, which are now in 
Alban (Scotland.) 

The third were the men of Galedin, who came in the 
naked ships (Canoes r) into the Isle of Wight, when their 
country was drowned f, and had lands assigned them by ths 
Kace of the Cymry. 



* The dwellers about the Loire or Liger. Gwas-Gwyn or Gwas-Gwvnt 

the country of the Venetij about ihe mouth of the Loire, and not Vasconia,-^ 
It was the country to which the Britons sent their fleet, in order to assist the 
Celia; of Gaul, their relations, against the arms of Caesar. lriad\^. 

+ Strabo L. Vn. speaks of the removal, and of the dispersion of the Cimbri, 
In consequence of an inundation. This tradition was preserved by ihe Cimbri 
of the Ceihsonesej but the event most have happened when their ancestors 
dwelt in a low country. 



156 

[And they bad neither privilege nor claim in the Islanc? of 
Britain, but the land and protedion that were granted, under 
specified limits. And it was decreed. That they should not 
enjoy the immunities of (he native Cymry, before the nintli 
generation.] (6) 

IV. Three usurping tribes came into the Island of Britain, 
and never departed out of it. 

The first were the Coranied, who came from the land of 
thePwylJ. 

The second w^ere the Gwyddelian Fichti, who came into 
Alban, over the sea of JJychlyn (Denmark.) 

The third were the Saxons. 

[The Coranied are ahout the river Humber, and on the 
shore of Mo'^r Tawch, and the Gwyddelian Fichti are in 
Alban, on the shore of the sea of Llychlyn. — ^The Coranied 
united with the Saxons ; and being partly incorporated with 
them, deprived the Lloegrwys of their government, by wrong 
and oppression: and afterwards, they deprived the Race of 
the Cymry of their crown and sovereignty. All the Lloegrwys 
became Saxons §, except those who are found in Cornwall, 
and in the Commot of Carnohan, in Dcira and Bernicia, 

The primitive Race of the Cymry have kept their land and 
their language ; but the}^ have lost their sovereignty of the 
Island of Britain, through tlie treachery of the protected 
tribes, and the violence of tbe three usurping tribes.] (7) 



X ii) P y'^ u IS added - Ac or A^ia pan hano^ddynt. And they originally 
tame from Ada Jones declared 200 vears ago, that he copied the various 
readings ficm which this passage is aken, just as he found them, in a copy 
that was more than 6co yt"rs old in his tiuie. See W. Arch. v. 2. p. 80, 

^i. e, Adopted tbe Saxon language and manners. 



157 

V. The three awfiil events of the Island of Britahi. 

Firsts the bursting of the lake of waters, and the over* 
tv'helmmg of the face of all lands ; so that all mankind were 
drowned, excepting Dwyvan and Dwyvach, who escaped in 
a naked vessel (without sails) and of them the Island of Britain 
was re-peopled. 

The second was the consternation of the tempestuous fire, 
tvhen the Earth split asunder, to Annwn (the lower region) 
and the greatest part of all living was consumed*. 

The third was the scorching summer, when the woods and 
plants were set on fire, by the intense heat of the Sun, and 
multitudes of men, and beasts and kinds of birds, and reptiles, 
and trees, and plants were irrecoverably lost. (13) 

\T. The three chief master works of the Island of Britain. 



The ship of Netj/dd Nav Neivion, which earned in it a 
ale a 
forth ; 



male and a female of all living, when the lake of v/aters burst 



The drawing of the avanc to land out of the lake, by th^ 
branching oxen of Hit Gadaruj so that the lake burst n© 



•CD 

more; 



And the stones of Gv»-yddon Ganhebon, on which were 
read the arts and sciences of the world. (97) 

VII. The three great Regulators of the Island of Britain. 



* This conflift of the Elements probably happened, when the Japctidas 
occupied ihe inflammable soil oF Asia Propria. It is perhaps the evrnt so 
awfully described by Hesiod, Theog. 678, 8cc, and which coniributed not only 
\o ihc defeat, but removal of the Tiians, 



158 

Hn Gad am, bringing the Race of the €3^11117 out of the 
land of Hav, which is called Defrobani, into the Island of 
Britain; 

Prydain, the son of Aedd-Mawr, establishing governroent 
and law over the Island of Britain ; 

And Rhitta Gawr, who made himself a robe, of the beards 
of kings, whom he caused to be shaved (reduced to vassalage) 
for their oppressions, and contempt of justice. (54) 

VIII. The three happy controulers of the Island of Britain, 

Prj'dain, the son of Aedd-Mawr, suppressing the Dragon 
tyranny [This was a tj-ranny of pillage and contempt of 
Equity, that sprung up in the Island] 

Carador, the son of Bran, the son of Llyr, checking the 
Oppression of the Caesars ; 

And Rhitta Gawr, controuling tlie tyranny and pillage of 
the tumultuary kings. (55) 

IX. The three benefadors of the Race of the Cymry. 

(. The first, Hu Gadarn, who first shew^ed the Race of the 
Cymry the method of cultivating the ground, when they were 
. in the land of HS.v [namely, where Constantinople now 
stands] before they came into the Island of Britain; 

Coll, the son of Coll-Frewi, who first brought wheat and 
barley into the Island of Britain, where, before, there had 
only been Oats and Rye; 

And Elldud the Knight [a holy man of Cor Dewdws] wlio 
improved the manner of cuhivating the ground, taught the 
Cymry a better method than what had been known before. 



159 

and shewed them the ait of plowing which now prevails^ 
[For before the time of Eildud;, land was cultivated only with 
a mattock and a spade^ after the manner of the Gwyddelians.] 
—(56) 

X. The three primary Sages of the Race of the Cymry. 

Hu Gadarn, who first colie6led the race of the Cymry and 
disposed them into tribes; 

Dj'vnwal-Moelmud, who first regulated the Laws^ privileges 
and institutions of the country and nation ; 

And Tydaiu tad Awen, who first introduced order and 
method into the memorials and preservation of the Oral art 
(poetry) and its properties. 

And from that order, the privileges and methodical usages 
of the Bards and Bardism (Druidism) of the Island of Britain^ 
were first devised. (57) 

XI. The three primary Bards'of the Island of Britain, 

Plennydd, Alawn and Gwron. 

These were they who devised the privileges and usages> 
which belong to Bards and Bardism. 

[Yet there had been Bards and Bardism before: but they 
were not completely methodized, and they enjoyed neither 
privileges nor established customs, but what they obtained 
through gentleness and civihty, and the protection of the 
country and the nation^ before the time of these three. 

Some say they were in the time of Prydain, the son of 
Aedd Mawr, otliers, that they were in the time of his son, 



l6o 



Dy vnwal-MoelmucI^ whom some of the old books call Dy vu* 
Varth, the son of Prydain.] (58) 

XII. The three Elementary masters of Poetry and Me- 
morial, of the Race of the Cymry. 

Gwyddon Ganh^bon, the first man in the world wlio 
composed poetry 5 

Hu Gadarn, who first adapted poetry to the preservation of 
tecord and memorials; 

And Tydain Tad Awen, who first developed the art and 
-striM^lure of poetry, and the due dispositi^:)n of thought. 

And, from the labours of these three personages, sprung 
Bards and Bardism, and the regulation of their privileges, 
and established discipline, by the three primary Bards, 
Plennydd, Alawn and Gwron. 

XIII. The three primary Baptized (or Chrbtian) Bards. 

Merddin Emrys, 

Taliesin, the chief of the Bard«, 

And Merddin, the son of Madawc Morvryn. 

XIV. The three mighty Labours of the Island of Britain. 

Ereding the stone of Ketti, 
Construdling the work of Emrys, 
And heaping the pile of Ci[vrangon. 



I6i 

XV. The three happy astronomers (Sermi/ddion, Sa^ 
Tonides) of the Island of Britain* 

Idris Guxvr, 

Gwyddiouj the son of Douy 

And Gzvyn, the son of 'Suddi 

[So great was their knowledge of the stars^ and of their 
nature and situation,, that they could foretel whatever might 
be desired to be known, to the day of doom.] (89) 

XVI. The three masters of mysterious and secret sci- 
ence, of the Island of Britain, 

Math, the son of Mathonwy, and he disclosed his secret 
U) Gwyddion, the son of J)ow. 

Meftgzv, the son of Teirgzoaedd, who taught his secret to 
Vthyr Bendragon. 

And Rhuddlz&m Gawr^ and he learned his mystery of 
Eiddic ,G6r and Coll, the son of Coll Frezvi, (90) 

XVIL The three great modellers of the Island of 
Britain, 

Corvinzar, the bard of Ceri Hir, of Llyngwyn, who first 
made a ship, with a sail and a helm, for the race of the 
Cymry, 

Mordial Gzvr Gzveilgi, the architect of C^razw^, the son 
of Greidial, who first taught the race of the Cymry, the wprk 



162 

of stone and lime, [at the time wh^n Alexander the Great 
was subduing the world.] 

And Coll, the son of Cyllin, [the son of Caradawc, the 
son of Brani] who first made a. mill with a wheels for the 
lace of the Gywry. And these three were 6«rc?5. (91) 



In these documents^ as they now stand, some degree of 
confusion may be detected. It is the inevitable eifect of 
transcript and comment, in ages, from which the key of the 
knowledge contained in them was, by the mysteries of time, 
withheld; but, upon the whole, they apjpcjE^r to be genuine 
memorials of remote antiquity. . ^^ V 

From the personifications, which occur in several of them, 
it may be inferred, that something more is implied, thaji^ 
series of historical events, and that frequently they consist of 
such allegories, or cenigmata, as Druids are known to have 
employed, in teaching their disciples. 

Thus the three primary bards, or Drukls, Flennydd, 
Alawn and Go/Tow, No. XI. are, in their literal import, %A/, 
harmony, and energy. 

In their national prepossession, they resemble the genuine 
eraditions of many other primitive people. The patriarchs 
«re made, almost exclusively, the fathers of the Gymry, and 
the general events of early ages, are consigned particularli/i^ 
to the Island of Britain, This may be exemplified in the 
account of the deluge, No. V. 

^ The. waters burst forth — all lands, were covereil-r^il* 



163 



mankind were drowned, except only two persons, who 
escaped in a boat. Of them was repeopled the Island of 
Britain" Even the vessel, which carried a male and a 
female of all that lived, v/as, it seems, one of the master- 
Works of the Island of Britain, 

This, which is contradictory to the more temperate ac- 
counts of the real progress made by the Cymiy^ illustrates 
the nostra-tism of all national traditions. 

The personage who sui*vived the deluge, is called Dzcy- 
Tan, or Dwyvazon, and his wife Dz€yvach-^\he godlike man 
and xooman. His name, (No. VI.) is Netydd Ndv Neivion. 
— the celestial one, the Lord of the zcatcrs. Our old bards 
call him, Dylan ail Mor ; Dylan, or Dyglan, — son of the sea, 
from Dy-glaniaw, to land, or come to shore — ^whence per- 
haps, Deu-calion. — Hu Gadarn, the mighty inspector, is a 
very high personage, and supreme agent in these Triads^, 
He was the God of the Druids. As such, he has always 
been acknowledged by the Welsh, A Christian bard thus 
marks the religion of his votaries, put in opposition to that 
of Christ.— 

" Two active impulses truly there are 
In the world, and their course is manifest: 
An impulse from Christ ; joyful is the theme— 
Of a right tendenc}', an energetic principle. 
Another ingpulse there is (indiscreetly sung) 
Of falsehood, and base omens: 
This, has been obtained by the men of Hu^ 
The usurping bards of Wales," 

He was not, however, without his partizans long after 



L S 



164 

the introduction of Christianity. He is thus elevated^ in the 
Orphic style^ by Jolo Gochj the bard of Orc^ew Glandwr, 

" Hu Gadajmy the sovereign, the ready protector, 

A king, distributing the wine, and the renown, 

The emperor of the land and the seas, 

And the life of all in the world, was he. 

After the deluge, he held 

The strong beam'd plough, active and excellent : 

This did our Lord of stimulating genius, 

That he might shew to the proud man, and to the humbly wise^ 

The most approved art, with the faithful father/' 

See 0. Diet. V. Uu. 

He is thus described by Rhys Brydydd, in the fifteenth 
century. 

** The smallest, if compared with small, 
V Is the Mighty Hu, in the world's judgment^ 

And he is the greatest, and Lord over us. 
And oUf God of mystery : 
Light is his course, and swift : 
A particle of lucid sunshine is his car: 
He is great on land and seas, 
The greatest whom 1 shall behold — • 
Greater than the worlds — Let us beware 
Of mean indignity, to him who deals in bounty/' 

See 0. Vict, V. Mymryjt, 

Tliough Hit Gadam primarily denoted the Supreme Being,. 
I think his actions have a secondarT/ reference to the history 
of Noah. The following particulars are told of him in the 
above cited selection, 

1. His branching, or elevated oxen, (perhaps his offer- 



165 

ing) at the deluge^ drew the destroyer out of the water^ so 
that the lake burst forth no more. (No. VI.) 

^. He instmcted the primitive race in the cultivation of 
the earth. (No. IX.) 

3. He first collected and disposed them into various 
tribes. (No. X.) 

4. He first gave laws^ traditions, &c. or adapted verse 
to memorials. (No. XII.) 

5. He first brought the Cymry into 'Britain and Gaul, 
hecause he would not have them possess lands, by war and 
contention 5 hut of rights and in peace, (No. II.) 



The account before us, of the settlements in Britain, gives 
precedency to the Cymry , who came from Gzdad yr Hdv, 
called JDefrohani. These, at present, are veiy obscure 
names ; but some commentator, at least, as old as the mid- 
dle of the twelfth century, explains them, and repeatedly, 
as meaning, " Where Constantinople now stands^' This 
comment would not have been made, without some autho- 
rity, and it belongs to an age which possessed many docu- 
ments, relating to the history of the Britons, which are no 
longer extant. 

HaVy in our old orthography, (as in Lib. Land.) would 
be Ham; it may import HcEmus, or Haemonia. Defrobani 
may either be Dy-vro-banau, the lajid of eminences, or high 
points, Thrace in general ; or else Dyvro-Banwy, the land 
QX vale of the Feneus, Thessaly, Haemonia. I have sliewn 



166 

elsewhere, that our ancestors, the CeltcS) in then* line of 
march, traversed those regions. 

But diough the Cymnj remained some time in that country, 
where they began the tillage of the earth, (No. IX.) it was 
not their ultimate, their destined, and proper home. It wa« 
not aland they could possess, " of right, and in peace " 

That part of the family which first came to Gaul and 
Britain J in search of lasting possessions, probably withdrew - 
towaids the Danube, — ascended even to the source of that 
river, — and stretched over to the Rhine; which river some of 
them perhaps may have crossed, whilst others followed the 
main sti'eam, to its mouth, upon the German Ocean, or M6r 
TawcL We are told (No. I.) that they came over that sea, 
to the Island of Britain, and Llydam, or the coast of Gaul, 
where they remained. 

It appears then, by these documents, that Gaul and 
Britain were peopled, originally, by the same race, and 
about the same time. 

The extent of Britain being imperfectly known, when 
its coast was discovered, perhaps only a few of the Cymryi 
volunteered themselves to settle there, and these, appear to 
have entered the country in detached, as well as little families, 
not under any one patriarch, of acknowledged authority ; for 
Jiu Gadarn was only their figurative conductor, to their 
western settlement, and the Braig Qrmes, or tumult of their 
leaders, threw them into confusion, till the arrival of ano* 
ther colony. These were the Lloegrzoi/s, or those who 
dwelt upon the Loire. They came under the conduct of 
Brydain, the son of Aedd the Greats a prince of the chief 
hranch of the Celtce in th« West, 



167 

I am very much deceived, if this Acdd was not tl>e Af>%; of 
Greek mythology, the acknowledged patriarch o^xh^ Gauls, 
and he from whom the aiaoyoi, Mdui, the first and principal 
race in Gaul, took their name.^ 

Trydain, or Pryd, who came into this island, could not 
\have been his immediate son, but a lineal representative, or 
descendant of Aides, Dis, or Japheth, 

The institution of British Druidism, having been com- 
pletely established, in the time of a sovereign, who was of 
the governing family in Gaul, (No. XL) that circumstance 
may account for its favourable reception there. 

The Brython, who gave its (existing) name to this island, 
and to its inhabitants, according to some of these Triads, and 
the venerable Bede, — came from Llydaw ; or, in other words^ 
from Armorica. They were probably of Fryd's retinue; 
for he brought his fleet, and his Llogerziys, ^^ Dir Gwas 
Gwynt," from the land of the Veneti, or the mouth of the 
Loire, adjoining to Armorica — Gwas Grcynt was the coun- 
try to which Britain sent its fleet, for the assistance of the 
Gauls, against the Romans. Compare Triad XIV. of the 
original series, with CcBsar, B. G. III. 8, 9. 

The Aedui and Veneti, or Aeddzcys and Gwynet, were of 



* Docebat etiam ut Omni Tempore, fotms GaZZi^ principatum ^Edui tcnor 
Issent, C(ES. B. G. I. 43. 

Summa auctoritas antiquitus erat in ^duis. Ih. VI. 12. 

£o statu res erat, ut longt principes ^Edui haberentur. Ih. 

Celtarum clarissimi Hedui. Mel. III. 2. 

Dicitiaciis, prince of the ^dvi, had a sovereign principality in Britain, aa 
well as in Gaul. See Borlase, p. 83, and his authorities. 

The British jEdui, or Hedtti, were in Somerscrtshire liic. Corinav. Stukeky, 

The Welsh denominate this district; after the cradk of the Cdtic n»\'m\l 
Cwlad yr Hdv, 



168 

the same stock ; for Gwyn, the son of 'Nudd, or Nevydd, 
king of the lower regions, was the same personage with 
jiedd Mawr. 

These three- colonies of the Cymry, arrived in Britain, 
before their divided famihes had forgotten their primitive 
tongue, or had lost the original and sound principle of just 
and peaceable possession. (No. II.) 



The account o^ Druidism, which these triads present, has 
evidently, a mixture of allegory, and it involves ideal, or my* 
thological characters. The following particulars, however, 
may be remarked, as worthy of notice. 

The Celtcd regarded the materials of this legendary system, 
as the relics of the first ages of mankind. 

Gzvyddon Ganhebon, was the first of the human race 
who composed poetry, (No. XII.) and he described, by 
engraving upon stones, the arts and sciences of the 
world. (No. VI.) This character, who forcibly reminds us 
of the inscribed pillars of Seth, Thoth, or Hermes, pre- 
ceded Hu Gadarn, zvho was present at the deluge — He took 
the Cymry under his protection — He taught the arts of 
peace, and principles of justice ; — He adapted poetry to me- 
morials and records, 

Tydain, or in more ancient orthography, Titain Tad 
Awen, Titan, the father of inspiration or genius, intro- 
duced order and method, into the poetry and memorials 
of the Cymry, 



169 

This personage, who is identified, by name, and ckaraC" 
ter, with Titan, or Apollo, of the Orphic hymns, and of 
Greece, forms a connecting Hnk, between the mythologies 
of eastern and western Europe, 

From the labours of those three masters, sprung British 
Druidism, with all its privileges, usages,, and rules of dis- 
cipline. (No. X. XII.) 

In this island, was Druidism first regularly established, 
and in the time of princes, who are acknowledged as great 
legislators, and benefactors of their country. (No. I.) 

The names which honour them, are connected witli 
mythology. 

Prydain, from Pryd, which is Time, Season, Due time — 
Beauty, Comeliness, and from Ain, a source or principle 
■^-seems to have been primarily designed as an epithet of 
the sun — Father of beauty, — and principle of the seasons. 

Prydain is the son of Aedd Mawr, the great A*Ji}?, fa- 
ther of the Aedui, and of the Gauls, 

The name of the other prince, Dyvnwal Moelmud, seems 
to be obliterated in the Celtic — ^^D^O bv tn ^ay signify, 
the judge, presiding over instruction. His other name, 
Dyvn Varth ab. Prydain, is, the profound bard or priest, 
the son of Prydain, 

The occasion of the institution, may be collected from 
the great act of Prydain, in suppressing the dragon 
tyranny, or the turbulence and confusion which had 
risen amongst the heads of families, (No. VIII.) and this 



170 

he effected, b}^ investing a sacred order of men, from whose 
definitive sentence there was no appeal, with an authority 
And jurisdiction to determine all disputes ; or, in other words, 
by committing to the ofhce of priesthood^ the administra- 
tion of civil power. 

The leading principles, upon which these patriarchal sages 
began their functions, are highly laudable, if judgment is 
to be formed of them by the characters first put into the ju- 
dical chair. — ^^ Flennyddj^ — ^^ Alarvn,'^ — a ^^ Gwrorij* — 
lighty — harmony y — and energy, or virtue, — (It has the same 
relation to gzvry ^man, as virtue has to vir,) 

^' Tlennydd^' is, I think, a name of the ^^ 5//??," or 
^^ Apollo" The sunbeams w^hich appear to vibrate in a 
hot day, are called, " Tes ys Plennydd," — the beams of the 
radiant one, '^ Eithinen neud gudd Blennhdd." Tal. " A 
furzebush would truly hide the sun." And again,— ^^ Blin 
blaen hlen Blennydd" ^^ Irksome in front is the radiance 
of the sun." 

But, though Prydain, or Dyvnwal, invested his Druids 
with all that civil authority which they exercised, under 
these Presidents, yet their principles of religion did not ori- 
ginate here, — There had been Bards, or Druids, before, 
though not completely incorporated, or vested with judicial 
authority, and with exclusive privileges. (No. II.) 

The names of primary bards intimate, that an osten- 
sible design of Druidism was, to enlighten the understand* 
ing, promote harmony in society, and encourage virtue. 

In the institutional triads, published by Mr, £. JVilliam^, 



171 

the design is thus declared. Tri dihen Barddoniaeth: 
Gwellhau mots a devod; ci/nnal heddzsch, a moli poh 
daiomis a rhagor, 

^' The three ultunate intentions of hardism : To reform 
the morals and customs ; to secure peace ; to celebrate (or 
encourage) all that is good and excellent." 

Druidism, then> in its primitive and pure state, may be 
regarded as an edifice, raised upon the basis of the patri-^ 
archal religion, for the purpose of superseding the neces- 
sity of recourse to arms, in the contentions of independent 
states ; and of restraining the excesses of individuals — with- 
out the aid of penal statutes. 

It governed men, by taking hold of their minds, and of 
their imaginations; — by suggesting laws which had their 
sanction in general opinion — and by teaching its votaries 
to expect, in a future state, a just recompence of their ac- 
tions; — an apprehension, which, might serve to regulate their 
conduct in tlie^r present life. 

A system thus constructed, probably attained its meridi- 
an prevalence at an early age, and amongst the first un- 
mixed colonies of the Qymry, It could operate with effect 
only amongst the people for whose opinions it was calcu- 
lated, and who held the sanctions of it in the most pro- 
found veneration. When strangers, who paid little defer- 
ence to the sacred code of these Druids, began to intrude, 
necessity would gradually put arms into the hands of the 
Cj/mri/, for self-defence. From that moment, of course, 
2mre Druidism began to decline. The inherent principle of 
securing peace, must have been occasionally abandoned, 
und many emendations proposed, for the purpose of de* 



172 

daring, in what cases it would be lawful to unslieath the 
sword, which the institutional triads describe as a necessary 
but reluctant exercise of duty, against the lazvless and the 
depredatory. 

Amongst their disciples^, these Druids could, at all times, 
ensure peace, by holding up the rod o^ excommunication, 
their most rigorous instrument of doom ; the wretch on whom 
it fell, was not only menaced with severe punishment here- 
after, but was deprived, in the mean time, of all social com- 
fort and benefit. 

But, in the eyes of strangers, who confided in their 
own strength, this weapon was disarmed of all its terrors, 
and their presence must have opened a secure asylum to 
the turbulent amongst the Celta, In the hour of invasion, 
Druids could only withdraw from the field, and permit the 
military chiefs, and the people, to defend the region. Their 
power, as Druids, and the purity of their disciphne, must, 
therefore, have been on the decline, long before the time 
of C(£sar, 

In favour of this institution, considered in a political 
view, little can be said. As our nature is constituted, it 
seems neither to have been calculated for the liberty of the 
individual, or the independence of the nation : and I regard 
its prevalence, as one main cause of the general subjugation 
of the Celtce. Their country was large and populous. The 
inhabitants, trained up to the exercise of that principle which 
they called fortitude, could not be deficient in courage^ 
And we read of several amongst tlieir families, who emigrat- 
ing with a view of conquest, made good their estabhsh- 
ment, in the midst of contending, fierce, and warlike na- 
tions. But these; were not attended by their Druids, wha 



17S 

deemed conquest nnlawful. Within ^AezV jurisdiction, arfiis 
^nd warfare in general were in disgrace. As a consequence 
of this principle, the sword was not ready, nor the soldier 
expert, in the day of necessity. Much of their best pos- 
sessions was generally lost, before they looked up to the 
painful duty J or qualified themselves to discharge it with 
due effect. The CeltcB were paulatim adsitefacti superari, 
Cas. De. E.G. YI. 21. 

Just so, we may suppose it would happen, to a nation, 
composed of a religious tribe, well known, and much re- 
spected in England. Though friends of peace, they would 
probably evince, on trying occasions, that the sentiment did 
not arise from a defect of courage. Yet, they would not 
overcome their scruples, and begin to exert that courage, 
till an enemy should have gained such advantage, as would 
fmstrate and baffle their utmost efforts. 

No. XV. mentions the astronomers, or Seronyddion (the 
Saronides of the ancients.) The name is British, being a 
compound of s^r, stars, and Honydd, (PL Honyddion,) one 
who discriminates and points out. 

Of those great astronomers, the first named is Idris the 
giant, whose memoiy is perpetuated by one of the high- 
est and most pointed mountains in North Wales, called 
Cader Idris, the chair, or keep, of Idris, It may, perhaps-, 
have been an observatory, in ancient periods. On the very 
summit, we are told there is an excavation in the solid rock, 
resembling a couch, and it is pretended that, whoever should 
rest a night in that seat, will be found in the morning, eitl>cr 
dead, raving-mad, or endued with supernatural genius. 

B/ the side of a lake, near the foot of the mountain, nre 



174 

three gigantic stones, called Tri greienyn, which the fahle 
of the populace describes, as three grains of sand which the 
giant shook out of his shoe, before he a,scended the chair. 
(See WyndhanCs Tour, 4to.) I rather think they obtained 
their name from Greian, the sun, iS'^?, in Greek, implies, 
an expert, or skilful person, and iiL?ni>, Idresh, in Hebrew, 
from '^VTi, Dre&h, to seek, search, inquire diligent li/, Hy^ 
dres has a similar meianing in Welsh, 

Idris, or Edris, is well known to the Arabians. They 
regard him as the prophet Enoch, and say, that he was a 
Sabean, the first that wrote with a pen after Bnos, the son 
of Seth, See Orient, Coll, V, 2. p. 112. 

The Eastern Christians tell us, that Idris was the same 
with Hermes, or Mercury, the famous Trismtgistus of the 
Egyptians. See Vallencey's Prospect, V, Dres, 

Grecian mythology gives a similar name to Atlas, the 
inventor of the sphere, and this personage is the character 
with whom I think our British Seronydd, Idris the giant, 
has much connection. 

The second astronomer is Gwyddion, the son of Don, — 
The Sage, the son of Genius, Without inquiring after the 
person dignified by this title, I shall just remark, that our 
old hards distinguished the Galaxy by his name, calling it, 
(^aer Gzvyddion, See O. Diet, V, Caer. 

The last of these luminaries was a person of no small im* 
portance ; Gwyn, the son of ISudd, the same as Aedd, or 
A^A, father of the Celta, and king of the lower regions* 
His dignity is thus acknowledged in a very old mythological 
talo, called, Buchedd Collen, 



173 

. A govyn a oedd g\VT o vown, yna i dyv/awd Collon, 
'* Ydwyv; pwy ai go\ynl" — '^ Myvi, cenad i Wyn ab 
Nudd, Bxenin Annwn." 

And he asking if there wm a man within^ Collen replied^ 
*^ I am; who asks it ?" — ^' It is I, the messenger of Gwyn, 
the son of Nudd, king of the loz^er regions j or of Annum '^ 

By this term, which denotes the deep., the lozo part, I 
think the Celtce, primarily understood a zvestern situatiojiy 
towards which there was an appiU'ent fall, in the course of 
nature, and in this primary sense, the term, I think, may 
be understood in that remarkable triad, (No. V.) 

When the opinion first prevailed, that souls of men de- 
scended for a time, to a lower state of existence, the zoest, 
or low region was consecrated peculiarly to them, — 
Annzen was applied figuratively to the condition of the 
dead, or the infernal regions, which comprehended the 
J^li/sium, and the Tartarus of antiquity. Thus we say, 
^' Nid eir i Annwn ond unwaith." There zcill be hut one 
journey to Hell. Czmi Annzon, are Hell-hounds, Plant 
Ammyi, the children of the deep, certain wandering spirits. 

As Annzvny or the x0estj was the peculiar land of the 
dead, we find sepulchral monuments most frequent in the 
western extremities of those countries, where Druidism was 
professed,, as in Britany, Cornzoall, and Mona, There was 
perhaps a time, when these Druids regarded Ireland as the 
land of spirits. The Mabinogion, or institutional talcs^ 
represent Anmvn as lying somewhere off Dyved, or Pern- 
brokahire ; and the Irish acknowledge Annan, or Annnn, 
as an old name of their country, See Shaza, Llzvyd, S^^r. 



176 

According to our Bardic documents, the Cymty liavc 
preferred their claim to an ancient connection with not 
only the teiTitories, but the mythology of Greece, It will 
add much to the influence and credit of British histories, if 
it shall appear, that ancient Greece acknowledged the same 
acquaintance with our Cymrj/j and their institutes of religion. 

This acknowledgment is clearly intimated in the persons 
and characters of the Hyperboreans, a people who revered 
the sacred places, the Gods, and the religious rites of an- 
cient Greece. To them, in return, Greece confessed her 
obligation for some objects of her own worship. Her 
ancestors had, therefore, been connected intimately with 
such a distant country, and with its inhabitants. 

Though once acknowledged, as forming prominent fea- 
tures in Europe, it must be confessed, the latter Greeks were 
but imperfectly infoimed of local facts respecting them. 
However, some of their best authors, do furnish us with 
particulars, which may assist us in our search for their abode. 

Dr. Percy, ^ in his inimitable preface to the Northern 
Antiquities, p. 7, points out a remarkable passage of this 
kind, in Strabo, who there informs us, '^ That, although 
the old Greek authors, gave to all the northern nations, the 
common name of Scythians, or Celto-Scythians ; yet, that 
writers still more ancient, divided all the 7iations 
who lived beyond the Euxine, the Danube, and the Adriatic 
sea, into the Hyperboreans, the Saurgmat^ and Ari- 



* Now Bishop of Dromore. " His Lordship has drawn the line of distinction^- 
bBtw«en the Goih and the Celt, -with a hand so judicious, and guided by so com- 
prehensive a knowledge of the subject, that he has left no ground for debate^ 
but I cannot help adding, iir support of his doctrine, thatsirailar points of demart-i 
ation hare, in a general manner, beenperceived and acknowledged by the WcUh** 



177 

MASPiANs; as they did those beyond the Caspian sea, into 
SACiE and MAssAGETiE. These last, the Sac(B and Mas- 
sageta, might possibly be the ancestors of the Saxons and 
Goths, (as these last are proved by indisputable evidence, 
to have been the Geta of the ancients) who, in the time 
of those remote Greek writers, possibly had not penetrated 
so far westward, as they did afterwards: for as it is 
well known the Germanii are considered by Herodotus 
as a Persian people. Now the most authentic histori- 
ans, and poets, of the Gothic, or Teutonic nations, agree, 
in representing their ancestors to have come as emigrants 
from the more eastern countries. But as to those three 
other nations, the Hyperboreans, the Sauromatie, and the 
Arimaspians; if credit be due to Pelloiiticr, when he asserts, 
that, under the two former, the Celts a7id Sarmatians are 
plainly designed ; yet, when he contends that Arimaspians 
are a fabulous race, which never existed, who does not see 
that he is blinded with hypothesis? Why may not the 
ancient Finns and Laplanders have been intended by this 
term, which he himself interprets, from Herodotus, one- 
eyed, and supposes it was descriptive of some nation that 
excelled in archery, as closing one eye, for better aim? 
Tacitus expressly assures us, that the Finni were great ar- 
chers; and as it is observed in the following book, it is 
highly probable, that at some early period of time, both 
Finns and Laplanders possessed much larger and better 
tracts of country, than the northern desarts to which they 
fsre now confined. 

The Sauromata, and Arimaspians, were clearly inha- 
bitants of eastern Europe, as they are described by Strabo : 
and the zcest has been assigned, by the oldest Greek wniars, 
to the Uyptrborians. Before the Goths penetrated into the ' 



178 

"^est, this was the land of the Celta, whom we must endea* 
vour to identify in those ancient inhabitants of that region* 

The name Hyperborei, has the import of Trans-Boreanit 
or men z&ho lived beyoftd the north, who resided therefore, 
beyond certain districts, or nations to the north, well known 
to the ancient Greeks. Yet were they not within the arctic 
circle, or in the extremities of the north, as comparatively 
recent authors have supposed. For the zvheaten straro was 
indispensible in their sacred mysteries ; and this was no pro- 
duce of high latitudes. According to Herodotus, the wo- 
men of Thrace, and Paonia, never made oblations to Diana, 
a divinity of the Hyperboreans, without recourse to this em- 
blem. From thence it may be inferred, that Hyperbo' 
reans, and the 'inhabitants of these countries, were origi- 
nally the same. 

The father of history describes the sacred gifts of the Hy- 
perboreans, as having been sent from one people to another, 
in their way to Greece, iv^tlv^.iyoi,y or _ ev^eS'e/Aeya sy v.ahu^'n irv^uff 
covered or bound by a z&heat straro, L. IV. oS. 

Perhaps ratified or confirmed by a zvheat straw, in con- 
formity with an ancient custom, to which an old bard alludes.— 

Oni 'mddyddan ychwaneg. 
Tor y gzvelltyfi ain dyn teg. 

'* If she converses no more, break the strazv with my fair 
one." That is — break off all connection zs)ith her. 

If he that broke that strazv dissolved a compact, he that 
gave, joined, or exchanged \t, made or confirmed a covenant, 
which the Hyperboreans may have done, when they entrusted 



179 

their sacred gifts into the hand of strangers. It is in allusion 
to some habit of this kind, that we have stipulor from stipula ; 
and, perhaps, Fo^dus, foederis, from the Irish, Fodar, strazc 

The ancient Britons, called Helmstraw, Cloig, from CIo^ 
a lock, a conclusion, a confirmation. They had also Belys^ 
from Beli, their Apollo. Belt seems to be derived from 
Balu, to shoot, spring, or issue forth, — Exaegyo?. 

Herodotus having understood that it was the cUstom of 
the Hyperboreans, to deliver their sacred gifts into Scythian 
hands, for the purpose of better forwarding them into 
Greece, enquired from the Scoloti of Little Tartary, whom 
the Greeks of his age eminently termed Scythians, respect- 
ing the Hyperboreans, But neither could this branch of 
the Scythians, nor any of their neighbours, the Essedones 
excepted, give the least account of them, and their trace 
of them, in his opinion, amounts to nothing. It therefore is 
clear, that no such ^eo'pleresided in the North East of Europe^ 

The Essedones, who had this imperfect knowledge of the 
Hyperboreans, were, probably, an eastern branch of the 
people who used the war chariot, called Essedunii or jBs- 
sedon ; and this was the national distinction of the Sigyna,* 
or the Celto Scythians, who occupied the South West of 
Germany, as it was also of their unquestioned Relations, the 
British Belga : which carries us to the North West from 
Greece, and at once into contact with Celts, who were 
professors of Druidism, 

And it was to the North West, frOm Greece, that we find 
the region of the Hyperboreans lay. 



•^ Heroiot. L. V. 9. 



180 

In the time of Arlsteas, (who wrote before Homer) the 
Hyperhorecim dwelt upon the sea^ beyond the Arimaspi, 
and their neighbours^ the Essedones, Herody'vf. 13. Her- 
cules went from Greece, to the Hyperboreans, through 7/- 
lyrium, and by the river Eridanus, or Fo. JpoUod, 
L. ii. C 4. 

Posidonins and Protarchus, placed them near the Alps. 
(Gale in Ant, Liberal, p. 144,) but they were not generally 
recognised on the south of these mountains, or very near 
them. 

After passing from one people to another, their gifts ar- 
rived far in the West, upon the Adriatic, from whence 
they were carried in the first period, or stage, of their pro- 
gress, to Dodona, but ultimately to Delos. Herod, iv. S3. 

They came, then, from the land of the Celtce, whom 
Heraclides of Pontus calls Hi/perboreans. Plutarch, in 
Camillo. 

It may be asked, how happens it, if the Hyperboreans 
were CeltcE, that the Greeks did not generally recognise 
them all over Celtica ? 

It may be answered, that it seems they had conceived a 
peculiar character of this people, and which appears to have 
been correct, as bearing upon then' primary families, or tribes ; 
but these, were followed by others, of a different cha- 
racter, and which materially changed the manners, previ- 
ousl}' impressed. The original idea which had been formed 
of the nation, was not realized by the Greeks, till they 
jeached the interior districts, in which the former inhabi-v 
lants remained unmixed. 



181 



The most considerable of these has been described by 
Hecateiis, and by other celebrated authors upon ancient 
tradition^ cited by Diodorus Siculus. 

According to this ancient writer, the country of the Hy- 
perboreans, in his day, was a large and fruitful island, in 
the ocean, lying to the North, off the coast of Gallia 
Celtica. This description, which I shall presently adduce 
at large, can agree with no. other spot but Britain. Heca- 
teus places the Island avrtw-s^av, opposite to, the coast of 
Celtica, without one intervening region : and should we 
seek it further North, a competent fertility of the land, and 
the essential wheat straxv, will not be found. 

Neither in this Island, itself, nor in contiguous parts of 
Eiirojje, can we find a religious order of ancient celebrity, 
except our Druids, whose Theology conformed, in general, 
to that of Greeks and Romans, (C^s. B. G, vi. 17.) 

The religion of the Germans was perfectly dissimilar, (Ibid 
21.) besides, that, in that part of Europe, their establish- 
ments, were comparatively recent, and posterior to the 
age of Hecate us. 

Hence it should seem, the Hyperboreans, who brought 
their gifts to Apollo, in the Vale of Tempe, down to the 
last ages of Paganism, (JE/. Var, Hist. L. iii. C. 1.) were 
our Druids of Britain, 

But let us examine if their characters are incorporated. 
The chief outline of the Hyperborean ethics, was piety, 
inoffensive as well as peaceable conduct, and fortitude. The 
favorite maxim of Druids, who abstained from contest, 
and allayed every popular ferment, was, according to Diog. 



182 

Laert (already cited for another purpose^) To zeorship the 
Gods — to do no evil — and to exercise fortitude ; or, as the 
original British runs — ^^ Tri chynnorion doethineb : ufudd- 
had i ddeddfau Duw; ymgais a lies dyn^ a dioddef yn 
lew poh digwydd bywyd/' 

*'^ Three first principles of wisdom: Obedience to the 
laws of God ; concern for the good of mankind ; and brave-* 
ly sustaining all the accidents of life/* 

The sacred rites of the Delians, originated in the Hyper-' 
horeans : Their virgins came to Delos, accompanied hy their 
Gods, Herod, iv. 35. 

Tertius (Apollo) Jove et LatonS, natus^ quern ex Hyper ^ 
toreis Delphos ferunt advenisse — Reliqui (Apollines) 
omnes silentur, omnesque res aliorum gestae ad unum 
Jovis et Latona& filium referuntur. Cic. de Nat. Deor. L. iii. 

The legitimate Apollo of Grecian worship is, therefore, 
an accredited Hyperborean. 

According to Gaulish tradition, in the time of Casar, 
Druidical discipline originated in Britain. The same ac- 
count is confirmed by the institutional Triads of that 
British order. 

*' Yn ynys Prydain, y cafwyd Earddoniaeth gyntaf — 
jam na chafwys un gwlad arall erioed ddeall cyfiawn ar 
farddoniaeth — o ba wl^d bynnag y bont, Beirdd wrth 
iraint a defod Beirdd ynys Prydain au gelwir." 

'' Bardism, or Druidism, originated in Britain — pure 
Bardism was never well understood in other countries — of 



183 

whatever country they may be, they are entitled Bards, ac- 
cording to the rights and the institutes of the Bards of the 
Island of Britain" 

Tydain, or Titain Tad Awen, Titan the Father of Genius^. 
the same as Apollo, is claimed as one of the Cymry, and as 
British. See above, (No. X. XII.) 

The Hyperboreans used the wheat straw in the rites of 
Apollo and of Diana, 

The old Britons ascribed peculiar virtues and powers to 
this very symbol. '' Gwrnerth Ergydlym a laddes yr iarth 
mwyaf ac a welwyd erioed, a saeth zvelltenJ' ^^ The keen^ 
darting Gwrnerth, (perhaps another title o^ Apollo) slew the 
largest beg^r that was ever seen, with an arrozo of strait., 
W, Arch. V. 2. p. 68. 

The arrow which Aharis, the Hyperborean priest of 
Apollo, carried round the earth, fasting {Herod, L. iv. 36.) 
was probably of this kind. 

As the ancie'nts often played upon words, particularly 
in their mystical accounts of things, oVto?, derived from oiu) 
to think or opine, may have conveyed the opinions, as well 
as the arrozi) of Aharis ; and by what Herodotus expresses, 
in the terms, oe^ty o-mo^Evo?, it may not have been originally 
meant, that he eat nothing, but that he made no provision 
for his journey, as Druids never did, regarding it as one of 
their sacred privileges, to find^ — 

" Trwyddedogaeth ble'r elont.'^ 

*/ maintenance wherever they went." [histitutional Triads^ 



184 

It appeal's, from several passages in Taliesin, that our 
Druids made use of strazo-reeds, and the points, or spicula 
of certain trees, in all their sacred rites. Perhaps he alludes 
to the Dtlian gifts, in telling us — 

Bum ynghaer Fefeni/dd, (L. Fehnydd.) 

Yt ^I'yssyntwdU a gx€i/dd, W, Arch. V. I. p. 29. 

*^ I have been in the city of Bdenydd, whither the straws 
and sprigs were hastening." 

Pythagoras, whose philosophy bore a wonderful resem- 
blance to that of Druids, is represented expressly to have 
heard the Gauls and Brachmans :^ the former, as it should 
seem, in the person of Abaris, who delivered his arrow to 
him, in other words, made a covenant with him, and at 
tile same time, instructed him in his doctrine. The philo* 
sophy of Greece, originated in the Celtct.'f 

The name of Abaris belongs to the Cijrnry. aC^o»-^ 
Kt/:*^got, ws T4VE5 (pa;», y^x^^iva. Steph. Byzatit. jDc Urb. 

Abaris may have been one of the Abroi; but the term 
does not sq properly appertain to the Nation, as to the reli- 
gion of the Cymry. Abarui, or Avarzcy, the Contempla- 
tive, is a familiar name in the old Welsh, Abaris, consi- 
dered as the character, I regard not as a personal name, 
but as a description of the order. — In short, as I would un- 
derstand Magus, or Druida, I think a short summary of 
D?'uidism, extracted from the institutional triads, of the 
order in Britain, will justify this acceptation. 



* Clem. Alexmuh Strom. L. i. Ex. Alex. Fohfldst. 
t JOio"-. Lacrt. Ex. Amtotek* Borlase, P. 73, 



185 

Druids divided the whole of existence into three cir- 
cles, ox spheres, \ . Cylch y Ceugant , The circle of space, 
which none but God alone can pervade. 2. Cylch yr A bred, 
or, as the continental Cymry would say, — Aberes, '^ The 
circle of courses, ^^ which comprehended the material crea- 
tion, and the condition or state of humanity. 3. Cylch y 
Gzoynfyd, the circle of happiness, which man would ulti- 
mately attain. 

But most of their philosophy respected the Abred, or the 
changes and revolutions to which nature and man were ex- 
posed. That circle of existence embraced their famous doc- 
trine of the Metempsychosis, which they reconciled with ap- 
parently ingenuous efforts, to the immortality, and the ul- 
timate felicity of the soul. The circle of Abred was that, 
in which man, with all the works of nature, began in ^ the 
Great Deep, or in the lozcer state of existence. — It con- 
tained a mixture of good and evil. 

But man, endued with a power of choice, between the 
evil and the good, by the exercise of his religion — of the 
relative duties — of pure virtue and fortitude, could bring all 
the passions or propensities of his nature, to a just balance. 
This condition of man was termed, the point of liberty, — 
he passed from thence, through the gate of mortality, into 
the circle of happiness : no more the victim of adversity, 
want, or death. 

But if he permitted evil affections to govern and pre- 
dominate, such as pride, falsehood, or cruelty ; that bias 
would sink him down from the circle of happiness. Death 
would return him to the circle of courses, allotting him 
a punishment, in due proportion to his moral turpitude. 
Here the soul was to do penuuce in a beast, or in a reptile, 



186 

or in several of them successively. From this degradation it 
rose, at length, and reassumed the human form. Repeated 
probations and corrections would, ultimately, subdue all 
evil propensities. The point of liberty would be attained, 
and the divine particle would be introduced, by death, to 
infinite happiness.* 

It has been a litigated question amongst the learned, whe- 
ther Pythagoras received the doctrine of the Metempsychosis 
from Druids, or communicated this doctrine to them. But 
as Greeks acknowledge that he was a disciple of the 
Celtic Sages — as it is avowed, that he received the arrow oi 
Aharis, which had been carried round the world — evident 
allusions to the mystery of the Ahrtd, which is the corner 
stone of Druidism, — and as Aristotle has owned, that phi- 
losophy did not emigrate from Greece to Gaul, but vice versa, 
I think it safer to conclude, that one individual foreigner 
borrowed from this national institute, than to conceive, that 
he should have communicated his own speculations, upon 
this very mystical topic of religion, to an order of men, who 
were always jealous of novelties. 
.., \An'.yj > !.-._■ . ■ 

It may b<5. added, that some of the very oldest Greek 
writers refer to similar opinions, as already established, and 
prevalent iri the tiorth west of Europe. 



* The tHads from which this epitome is compiled, may be seen in the original, 
and in its version. Ed. William's Poems, V. ii/.P- 227. 

Of the copy from which they are taken, that ingenious poet and writer gives 
the following account. 

" The triads that are here selected, are from a manuscript collection, by 
Llywelyn Sion, a bard, of Glamorgan, about A. D. 1560. Of this manuscript, I 
have a transcript. The original is in the possession of Mr. Richard Bradford^ 
of Bettws, near Bridgend, in Glamorgan. This collection was made from va- 
rious manuscripts, of considerable, and some of great antiquity. These, and- 
their authors, are mentioned, and most, or all of them, are still extant." 



187 

Atlas, the son of Japetus, was an Hyperhorea7i, — he was 
also, a neighbour of the Hesperides. It was, consequently, 
in the north west corner of the world, that he supported the 
heavens. It was in the same tract, that jfottw^a2?is, and 
the origin of the earth, ,of hell, of the sea, of the sidereal 
heaven, and of all things, vrere placed in the great deep, 
Hesiod, Theog, 736. 

It was here that Styx resided, in a magnificent house, 
composed of huge stones, connected, or covered at the top, 
(just in the style of our British monuments) and punished, 
even the Gods, by degrading them, for a time, to a lower 
state of existence, from whence they were to pass, through 
a variety of arduous probations, before they could recover 
their primitive divinity. 

It was here also, at the ends of the earth, in the islands 
of the blessed, and by the deep ocean, that Jupiter assigned, 
as the reward of the just and the good, — as a recompence 
and crown to the heroes who had fallen before Thebes, and 
before Troy, — a residence of tranquillity, after death, in 
which the fertile soil produced its fruits, thrice every year. 
Hesiod. Egy. a. 155, to 17 1. 

Tliese, must not only have been prevalent opinions, in the 
age of Hesiod, but must have been considered, by him, as 
maxims, rooted in the periods he describes. The road of 
the ancient Greeks, to the court of Pluto, to the land of 
just retribution, and therefore, the paradise and the hell of 
their mythology, pointed at the Islands of Britain, 

The country, it is true, as we find it, will not answer 
the description, either of wretchedness or felicity ; but those 
pictures referred^ in their colouring, to religious faithj and 



^ 188 

they are verified in the different states of retribution j which 
Druidism conferred upon the virtues and vices of men. All 
that fair criticism demands, may be attested, and confirmed 
in the unequivocal remains of such monuments, and of such 
opinions, as the ancients ascribe to our distant progenitors. 

Upon the whole, then, I cannot but apply to our Druids 
of Britain y the description preserved by Diodorus Siculus, 
L. ii. C. 47, M^hicli I here insert, with a few remarks. 

HecateuSy and some others, who treat of ancient histories 
or traditions, give the following account. 

" Opposite to the coast of Gallia Celtica, there is an island 
in the ocean, — not smaller than Sicily y — lying to the north, 
— which is inhabited by the HyperhorcanSy who are so 
named, because they dwell beyond the north zcind. This 
island is of a happy temperature, rich in soil, and fruitful 
in every thing, yielding its produce twice in the j^ear. 

'^ Tradition says, that Latona was born there, and for 
that reason, the inhabitants venerate Apollo, more than any 
other God. They are, in a manner, his priests, for they 
daily celebrate him with continual songs of praise, and pay 
him abundant honours. 

*' In this island, there is a magnificent grove te/xew?, 
(or precinct) of Apollo, and a remarkable temple, of a 
round form, adorned with many consecrated gifts. There 
is also a city saci*ed to the same God, most of the inhabi- 
tants of which are harpers, who continually play upon their 
harps in the temple, and sing hymns to the God, extolling 
his actions. 



189 

" The Hyperboreans use a peculiar dialect^ and have a 
remarkable oiy-gtoTara, attachment, to the Greeks, especially 
to the Athenians, and the Delians, deducing their friend- 
ship from remote periods. It is related, that some Greeks 
formerly visited the Hyperboreans, with whom they left 
consecrated gifts, of great value, and also that in ancient 
times^ Abaris, coming from the Hyperboreans, into Greece, 
renewed their friendship, {yvyyvJuoLv) family intercourse, with 
the Delians. 

^' It is also said, that, in this island, the moon appears very 
near to the earth, that certain eminences, of a terrestrial 
form, are plainly seen in it, that the God (Apollo) visits 
the island, once in a course of nineteen years, in which 
period, the stars complete their revolutions, and that for 
this reason, the Greeks distinguish the cycle of nineteen 
years, by the name of the great year, 

" During the season of his appearance, the God plays up- 
on the harp, and dances every night, from the vernal equi- 
nox, till the rising of the pleiades, pleased with his own 
successes. 

'' The supreme authority, in that city, and sacred pre- 
cinct, is vested in those who are called Boreadct, being the 
descendants of Boreas, and their governments have been 
uninterruptedly transmitted in this line'' 

The topography of this island accords, precisely and ex- 
clusively, to the local position of Britain, Some have 
objected that the words, v.o:tx raq a^KT-t;?, do not simply 
mean, lying towards the north, but imply a higher lati- 
tude, than that of Britain, But this island, viewed from 
tiie coast of Gaul, appears to be under the Btar, and tlx- 



190 

same Diodorus, L. V. 21, when speaking expressly of JBn- 

tain, describes it as, 'v<a/ avrriv mv oc^arov -MhjjAV/iv. — IpSI URSiE 

SUBJECTAM. In the same chapter, he compares the 
island's ybr;7j to that of Sicily ; he asserts that, in ancient 
periods, it had remained unmixed by foreign power, for nei- 
ther Bacchus, nor Hcixules, nor any other hero or poten- 
tate of whom we have read, had molested it by war. He re- 
marks the simple manners, and singular integrity of the 
inhabitants : he adds, that their numerous princes generally 
cultivated peace amongst themselves. — ^These, are distin- 
guishing features of the Hyperboreans, Hecateus was 
unacquainted with an accurate and real survey of Britain, 
but he compares it, naturally and properly, to the largest 
island that was known to the Greeks. 

As the Celtic year began in July,* Britain may have 
been described as producing two harvests, one at the com- 
mencement, and the other, at the end of each year ; but/ 
in the time of the Britons, its most important produce was 
pasture, and of this, it continues eminently to afford a 
second crop. 

The honour of Apollo is not forgotten, in the ancient 
monuments of the Cymry. The first name of Britain, after 
it was inhabited, was Vel ynys, the island of Bel. W. Arch. 
V. 2. P. 1. Belennydd or Plennydd, was a founder of Druid- 
ism, (No. XL) It was afterwards called ynys prydain, the 
island of the regulator of seasons. TV. Arch. uhi. sup. 
See also a fragment of a Druidical prayer. W» Arck,t 
V. 1. P. 73. 



* Pliny. L. XVI C 44. The. Wd^h call this inoath Gorphenhav, the cow 
elusion of the summer, or tjear. 



191 

Llad yn eurgyrn, 

Eurgyrn yn Haw, Llaw yn ysci 

Ysci ym modrydav 

Fur iti iolav, Buddyg Veli, 

A Manhogan Rhi 

Rhygeidwei deithi, Ynys Vel FelL 

'^ The gift in the golden horn — ^the golden horn in the 
hand — the hand on the knife — ^the knife on the leader of the 
herd — sincerely I worship thee, Beli, giver of good, and 
Manhogan, the king, who preserves the honours of BEL, 
the Island of Beli.'* 

The sacred precinct, and the temple, in its ancient form, 
are to be seen, at this day, upon Salisbury plain. It was 
called (No. XIV.) Gwaith Emrys, or Emreis, the structure 
of the revolution, evidently that of the sun, for the name 
has been so contrived, that the letters which form it, when 
valued as the Celtic or Greek numerals, mark the day on 
which that revolution is completed, viz. 

.,'8, fA'40, /lOO, u'S, / 10, <: 200 = 366. 

The account given of the inhabitants of the city of Jpollo, 
might be deemed sufficient of itself to settle this point. 
We discover no considerable Druidical monument, where 
the language of Britain is preserved, without finding also, 
Tre V Beirdd, the town of the Bards, or a name of similar 
import, in its vicinity. 

The Bards were Priest and Poet. The Harp was 
their inseparable attribute, and skill upon this instrument 
was an indispensible qualification for their office. 



199 

The ancient tnendship and ctMsmmgmmty of the Htfper- 
itmrtmm and Gn^ksy are again, strong circllms^ances. 

TheCjTW'Tr derive their Terj carigin from the neighhoiirhood 
ofGrtece, and they left, as they tell us, the country in peace. 
These IsImuderSy whb can, I think, he no longer mistaken, 
dain Akaris as their countryman. The intercourse and 
IneiMisbip iiffeich he came to renew, refer to the first ages 
of GrictimM kist^/y — ^to the days of ^:f rsri.s and Opi^ of 
whom Greec€ received the Gods, and learnt the rites from 
the Hirperhoreams. 

The nodce which modem discovery has verified so amply, 
respecting the appearaBce of the moon, must he very in- 
ig, in an ancient author, concerning any people what- 
It seems to indicate the use of something like tehs^ 
€9fKs; and whatever may have heen intended hy it, onr 
trimds mention Diyck ah Cihdd^r, or Ci^fArarr, the spem- 
hnm of the S0M of perv^t^iMg »iatKt, or of the searcher 
ofmjfstertf^ as one of the secrets of the Fshmd of Britain. 
fV. Jn:k, V. o. 

It has befii acknowledged, hy ancient authors, that car 
LyrtticU prt^ssed tistroriam:f. This elevated science is posi- 
tively insisted upon, in those triads which I have sclecteff. 
Leariied men are of opinion that even the monuments of 
DrmidisMy m Britain, hear indisputable evidence of their 
proficiency in the science. The Greeks call the c^ck, here 
mentioaed, the tat tonic, from the name of its puhlisher, about 
the eight f^/tk Olyntpiad; hut Hesiod mentions the jinmms 
Mtigntis, as loiown, long beibre kis lime, in the regien^ 
of' PUto. Tkeog, 799. 

The music, and the nightly dance of JpoIIo, were, per- 



193 

hfipa, pagi^Hts of iJruidiral device^ to cclebi'ate the coid- 
pletion of this period. 

Diodorus, and his anthorities, c. powei 

and tiie institution of these priests as recent, but & ;jad 

continued^ without interruption, in the ^ rT 

Boreas. Oat British nsLme of Stoju/ujti^e, C ., . . „ , .^ 
and the name of the neighbouring viliai^e, Amb/t^bary, 
connect this Boreas, with a character well known in Grtck 
mythology. 



It has become a fa'shioHj amongrst th^; Wdrnr-A of tlil* ag^j 
to derive all knov.-Jed^e and religion, prevalent in the zctU 
©f Europe, from Ih/caleu 

This opinion, apr -:, no le-^ "^ ■-:! stent with 

Grecian M?/thoiocfy, i.^u... v, r... Celtic '1 ,-..■, ...../u 

The errands of Hercule^ to the ajfsf, are not for the pur* 
pose of introducing to the natives, but for that of procuring 
from tli^rn, what was deemed yaluable. 

It was to carry off the herds of Geryon — to rob the or- 
chard of tiie H ripe rides — or steal the ^^iidrd of Pluto's gate, 

Tliese tales, though literally fables, must have meant 
something : let us try if the two last cannot be explained 
by the mythologies of Britain. 

Htrcuies had the ta^k of procuring three yellow apples, 
from the garden of the Hesperides, Tliese apples were me* 
taphorica], and pointed at science, discipline, or mystery.. 

X 



194 

The hero receives directions from Prom€theits,.ho\y to ob- 
tain the fruit, namely, that he should attend his brother 
Atlas, the Hi/perborean, and get him to fetch it, out of 
the neighbouring garden of the Hesperides. J/poUodor^ 
L. ii. C. 4. * 

It will be recollected, that Prometheus was one of the 
lapetidae, and son, or native inhabitant, of Asia Propria, 
who had been expelled from thence to the neighbourhood 
of Mount Caucasus, in Asiatic Scythia, as Atlas himself 
had been driven from the same native spot, into the west of 
JEurope. It appears from hence, to what family these 
apples belonged. 

We are informed, by our British triads, that the first 
name given to this island, before it was inhabited, was Clds 
Merdin, the garden of Merddin. W. Arch. V. 2. P. 1. 
The name of Merddin has been conferred iipon old bards, 
but is originally, a mythological term. His tzvin sister is 
Gwenddydd, or the morning star: He must have be^n 
himself some luminary, in a similar character. 

H 

Merddin, if Mer-Din, be its root, is dweller of the sea; 
.if Mer-dain gives it birth, it is, the comely one of the sea^ 
It implies, in either sense, the evening star, or Hesperus, 
the western luminary. 



* Several of the ancients, who wrote after the Carthageniain had extended 
their voyages, describe the seat of Atlas and the Hesperides, as attached to 
Africa. It is very usual to distinguisli newly discovered places, by familiar 
names. Thus we have 'New England, in America; New Holland, and Nexc SouiJi 
Wales, amongst the Antipodes. 

Apollodonts, the accurate recorder of tradition, corrects the error.. 

Atlast and the gardens of the Hespcrides, were not, as some represent them i9 
ligvt been, in Lybia ; hut amongst the Hi/per boreaiis. 



195 

The apple-trees and yellow apples of Merddinh garden, 
ihat were given to him by his Lord, Gwenddoleu ab 
Ceidioy the master of the fair bozo, the son of p>reservation, 
are famous in British Mythology, In the W. Arch. V. 1. 
P. 150, there is a mystical poem, given under the character, 
of Merddin, from which it appears, that, by these trees, 
and their fruit, the whole system of Druidical divination 
was implied and covered. The first pennill runs thus. 

^^ To no one has been shewn, in one season of twilight 
What Merddin received before he became old^ 
Seven fair apple-trees, and seven score. 
Of equal age, equal height, length, and size : 
One maid, with crisped locks, guards them — 
Olwedd is her name — of the form of light are her teeth." 

Ola, Olwen, or Olwedd is Venus. Were not those trees, 
constellations, and may not the apples have been stars, which 
after they were committed into the charge of the most pre- 
eminent in the order, could be discovered by none till 
Merddin, or Hesperus appeared r 

From hence it should seem, as if the golden apples, which 
Hercules procured from the garden of the Hesperides, 
pointed at the science of astronomical divination. 

The guard of Pluto's-gate, or three headed Cerberus, 
may signify the mystical doctrines of the Hyperboreans, 
guarded by their three orders — their Druid, their Bard, 
and their Ovydd. And what renders this, not a little pro- 
bable is, that Kelb, or Kelv, in many ancient languages, 
means a dog, and that, in British, the same word inr- 
ports a mystery or science, i 



'N a 



196 

In the volume above cited, p. 45, an old Bard alludes, 
perhaps, to this enterprize of Hercules, whom, accordinq; 
to the doctrine of the Metempsj/shosis, he supposes to have 
reappeared, in the person of Ahxandev^, 

Rhyveddav na chi'awr, S;c.. 

'^ I wonder it is not perceived, that Heaven had promised 
the Earth, a mighty chief, Alexander the Great, the 
Macedonian^ 

*^ Hewys, the iron genius, the renowned warrior, de- 
scended into the deep. — Into the deep he went, to search 
for the mystery, (Kelv-yddyd). In quest of science, let 
his mind be importunate, let him proceed on his way, in 
the open air, between two griffiiis, to catch a view. No. 
view he obtained. — ^To grant such a present wovid not be 
meet. He saw the wonders of the superior race, in the 
fishy seas. — He obtained that portion of the world, >vhich 
his mind had coveted, and, in the end, mercy from the 
God." 

If Prometheus, or the lapetidcz of Caucasus, could in- 
struct the Greeks how to obtain the desired frait from the 
garden of the Hesperides, it may be suspected, that the 
mystical doctrines of the zcestcrn creed were known to 
Asia, And something of this kind must be intimated by 
the tale of A bar is, who is allegorically represented, as. hav-^ 
ing carried his arrow rqund the whole world. 

It appears, from Anton, Liberal. C. 20. (writing after 
Boeus, and Simmias Rhodius) that the inhabitants of Ba- 
hj/lrn, in Mesopotamia, often visited the temple of Apollo^ 
in ihe land of the Ilyperboirans, during mythological 



197 

ages, and attempted, even to introduce their sacrifices^, 
into their own country. 

An ingenious friend of mine suggested, that menzv ah 
Tth'gwaeddj or Memo of the three Veds^ one of the mas- 
ters of the mysterious and secret science, amongst the 
Cymri/y (No. XVI.) is the same character and personage 
with Menu, author of tlie Fedas, in the m3^thology of the 
Hindus^ 

This conjecture seems to have much verisimiHtude, and 
may be extended, perhaps, to Minos , King o^K^JiT, (which, 
in the old Cottian Celtic, is the earth,) who was constituted 
one of the judges in the court of Pluto. 

Menu, and Minos, may be referred, ultimately, to the 
patriarch Noah, whose decrees formed the basis of juris- 
prudence in the east and the zcest. 

If so, there was, at least> a connection between Druid- 
ism, and the religion of India ; and it may not be an im- 
probable conjecture, that it was by those Galata^, or Druids, 
under whom Pythagoras had studied, that he was recom- 
mended to the school of the Brachmans. 

This idea of a mutual intercourse, between the Sasres of 
the east and the zcest, is countenanced by Mr. Wilford s 
incomparable dissertation, upon Egypt and the Nile, 
Asiat. Rec. V. 3, 

That masterly writer informs us, that much intercourse 
once prevailed, between the territories of India, and cer- 
tain countries in the nest. — That the old India?ts were ac- 
*^uainted with our British Isla^nds, which their book^ de- 



198 

scribe as the sacred Islands in the trest, calling one of then* 
Bretashtan, or the seat said place of religious duty. — ^That 
one of these Islands, from the earliest periods, was regarded 
as the abode of the Pitris, who were fathers of the human 
race. And that, in these Islands, were two places, in which 
those Pitris could be seen. 

That the old Hindus visited them accordingly, for t\\\^ 
purpose, and that even a certain Yogi, who was living when 
Air. Wilford wrote, A. D. 1791, had set out upon that very 
design, with his attendant pilgrims, and had proceeded m 
his journey, as far as to Moscow. 

In the same volume, that luminary of science, public 
spirit and virtue. Sir William Jojies, — '^ on the lunar year 
of the Hindus,'' — tells us, that, ^^ On the day of the conjunct 
tion, obsequies are performed (as offerings) to the manes of 
the Pitris, or progenitors of the human race, to whom the 
darker fortnight is peculiarly sacred," — -just as the nighty. 
or dark season is consecrated^ in Druidical worship. 

On these passages I would remark. 

That the Pitris of the west, and these honours to them,.^ 
^could not have sprung- originally from India. 

From the earliest periods, their abode had been in the 
sacred Islands of the zcest, in which Islands, we find the 
Cymrij, who emphatically call themselves the first, or the 
oldest race. 

These Islands could not have been consecrated hy the 
Indians. Had tlie mysteries of the Pitris originated zvitk 
Hindus^ their sacred abode would, unquestionably have beenr 



199 

fixed in a recess oi their own country, to which an habi- 
tual access would be competent, and of which their own 
tribes would be the political masters. Whereas, the Hindus 
could hold no communication with such oracles in the west, 
and, in a land of strangers, unless they took upon them- 
selves a toilsome pilgrimage, over half the globe, through 
many barbarous countries, which intervened, before they 
could reach the sacred Islands, 

This veneration, then, for the Pitris, and the usage of 
consulting them, were necessarily derived, by the Hindus, 
from the religion of that race, in whose land those conse- 
crated personages were acknowledged, uniform!}^, to have 
resided. 

And this, was the country of the same people, to whom 
the ancient poets of Greece and Home, conducted their 
heroes^ when they were to consult the manes of the dead. 



200 



Sect. III. Of the Coranied or first invaders of Britain 
—a discrimination of the Qe\i\c dialects, with short rf- 
marks on the general character of the Celtic language. 



o 



UR British documents being found agreeable to the 
siccount which the oldest authors give of the Cymry, and of 
their institutions, I shall offer a few remarks upon the 
Coranied, whom they represent as the first hostile invader* 
of Britain, 

These were preceded by the Celyddon, Gwyddyl and 
Givyr Galedin (No. III.) who arriving after the country 
had been settled, were admitted,, under some restriction of 
privileges. , 

It appears to me^ that the tribes here named, were still of 
Celtic origin, came from both banks of the Rhine, and were 
prcdcursores of the Belga, who, at several distinct periods, 
obtained, and possessed, by force, great part of the island/ 

These people, who make a considerable figure in the his- 
tory of Britain, ave styled Coranied, o rvlad y pwyl, and, 
in a passage already adduced, it is affirmed, that, originally, 
r.hey came from Asia, 

Though Coranied be their most general name in these 
triads, yet we often find one of this nation termed Cawr^ 
the giant, and this name, as often contracted into Cor,. 
whu'h form^s in its plural, Coried, or Corioip. 



201 

Ift the same district which the Cor anted first occupied^ 
ive also find the Coetanau, one of whose principal towns is 
called Llwyd Coitf or the fortress of the Cotti* This word, 
with our British article ys, forms Yscoit, or S'Coti. It may 
not be easy to determine, with precision, the sense of 
these very ancient names. Coranied may import shepherds; 
for Cor-lan is a sheepfold, and Cor-gi, a sAe^p ^<^S> ^^ 
Welsh, as Cflo;' is a sheep, in /risA. 

Carer is a giant) or mighty man : and Coetanau, or Cotti, 
seems to be derived from Co^^, W. Coaif^. Arm. and CmzV, 
Gornish, a forest or wood. The ancients describe a race of 
Shepherds, in primitive Europe — ixs Giants, who dwelt ia 
Xhefores„ n mountains. 

The country, which the Coranied occupied, is described;^ 
as having been, (Am), round the river Humber, and upon 
the shore of Mor Tawch, the German Ocean, In these 
districts, their British names are preserved, by the old Geo- 
grapher s,int\ie Coritani, Corii, Coitani, &c. 

But, according to ancient British accounts, their territory 
enlarged itself, beyond the local application of these names, 
and comprehended not only the inland regions, round the 
wide-spreading arms of the Hnmher, but also much of the 
Eastern coast of England. And I have reason to believe^ 
the account is just. 

When Cd-sar arrived in Britain, the Aborigines were 
those of the interior parts, and of the Western coast. Their 
character, and their habits were different from those of the 
other Brito7is, with whom Casar fought. We are not ap- 
prised, and have no reason to conjecture, that he sazo the 
interior inhabitants. Ilie armies that opposed him, wer^ 



202 ■ ' 

similar, in their general habits — in their military art, and 
resources, to each other, as they were also to the Belgce of 
Kent; though headed by a prince of the Cassii or Catti, 
of Herts and Middlesex, and though consisting, in part, of 
the Ceni Magni, or I Ceni, of Norfolk, Suffolk, &c. 

The monuments we call Draidical, must be appropriated, 
exclusively, to the Aborigines of the midland, and western 
divisions. They are found in such corners, andyasfwessesj^as 
have, in all ages, and countries, been the last retreat of the 
conquered, and the last that are occupied by the victorious. 
— In Wales, and in Mona, they were used, and venerated,, 
until the Aborigines were completely subjugated by Roman 
arms. In the central counties, and in the west, they per- 
petually occur, from Cornwall to Cumberland : whereas, 
comparatively, few traces of them are discovered in the 
Eastern part of the Island, which therefore appears to have 
been occupied by those people who did not construct build- 
ings of this nature, and who obtained possession, before the 
Aborigines deeply impressed their character upon the soil. 

In that eastern division, besides the Corii, Coitani, &r. 
we find the race of Brigantes. This name did not confine 
itself to the County of York. Galgacus, iji Tacitus, ap- 
plies it, emphatically, to the Iceni, Ceni-magni, or Tigeni. 
They were probably, then, all of the same root, or stock. 
After the Iceni, in our maps, come Trinovantes, Cassii, or 
Cattii, Cattieu-Chlani, (clans or children of the Cat- 
ti,) &c. 

The very same descriptions of tribes, whicli are found ii> 
this part of England, frequently occur in Ireland, in Scot- 
land, and in the known possessions of British Belga; hxO- 



205 

scarce ever in Wales, or in those inland counties of England, 
which border upon that principahty. 

Thus_, in Ireland, we have Brigantes and Briges, Caiioi, 
S'Coti, Coriondi, Ven-Icnii and Damnii. In Scotland are 
found the Novantes, Damnii, Damnonii, Cantcs, Carini, 
Cattini, S'Coti Atta-Coti, 

The Caledonia Sylva occurs in Scotland, JSJorthampton^ 
shire, and Sussex; and_, I think, every where marks that 
people, in whose idiom Coilleadh is a forest, and Dun, or 
Dunadh (duny) a dwelling. The Damnii of Ireland, of 
Scotland, and of Devonshire, as well a& about the wall of 
Severiis, exemplify the same analogies. 

It may be observed, in general, that although in the East 
of England the names of tribes, of rivers, of tozvns, and of 
men, present the character of the Celtic language, yet they 
appertain to a dialect, which is nearer, in its approach to the 
Irish, than our old British appears to have been. 

I therefore think our Coranied, Coiti, Giants, 8cc. were 
branches of the same people, who obtained possession of 
Ireland and of Scotland, and whose language prevailed in 
these countries. 

Cidsar tells us, the invaders of this island retained the 
name^ of the continental tribes, from whom they had 
sprung. This account he must have received from those 
Britons with whom he conversed, for, before he landed, he 
was ignorant of the country, and of its inhabitants. The 
Gauls had been too jealous of his enterprize to afford hiiu. 
the least information^ 



€04 

The Cornnied came into the Island of Britain, o Wlad 
y Pwi/l, from the land of Poohy or of the Water. This 
name aptly describes Holland; and it is acknowledged, that 
by Celta^r that very coast was inhabited, before the appulse of 
the Goths, In this neighbourhood we discover tribes, whose 
names have been retained in British Islands ; such as the 
Cauci, who were also a people of Ireland, and, in Pliny's 
account, of the same 7iation as the Cimhri, To these ad- 
join Frisii, whom Whitaker, Baxter, and otlier authors 
of credit, consider as Britons. We have also Bructeri, in 
the same line of march, who, in the Irish language, are the 
Borderers, Baxter has proved, that, in general, the in- 
habitants of that neighbourhood were called Britanni. See 
the word in his British Glossary, 

If I may risk an opinion, our Coried, Cotti, and Giants, 
came into Britain, from this part of the continent. They 
constituted part of a race, which established themselves, 
more or less, in all the ample divisions of the Celtic terri- 
tories, though prevailing chiefly in Belgium, and about the 
Rhine ; In their approach to the West, I consider them as a 
second wave of the Cimmerian emigrants, 

I have already observed, that, although some of the Cymry 
left Asia Propria, Thrace, and Ilccmofiia, n\ peace, carry- 
ing their peculiar customs with them, into these Western 
settlements, where they were known to the Greeks, in early 
times,— -yet part of the family remained behind. 

The Ci-cones, w^ho were also Galai, and Briantes, fought 
TVith Ulysses, after the fall of Troy.*' There were Briges, of 



♦ I speak of llie War of Trorj^ as an Kra to wliich ihc ancients familiarly refer ; 
hilt ii is not my design to insinuate an opinion respecting tlic reality of 041 event 
w})i(;h has engaged the superior learning, and sagacity of Mr. Bbyant, 



205 

the Cimmerian family, who crossed over, from Thrace Into 
Asia, and assumed the name of Pluyges, some time after 
the zcar of Troi/, whenever that event happened. But long 
before Troi/ had acquired celebrity, lapetus married, or took 
possession of Asia, where he generated a race of Titans, and 
those Titans, progenitors of Thracians and of Celt a, contest- 
ed with Javan's posterity the possession of these countries ; 
raising the mountains, that is, their inhabitants, against 
the Greeks, or, in poetical description, against their Gods. 

Such of them as became partizans for the cause of 
Jupiter, were led by Cottus, Briar eus, and Gi/ges — names 
which are evidently connected with a Cimmerian, or Celtic 
race, whether considered as designations of individual sove- 
reigns, or of tribes; in which last view of them, we may- 
describe the Titans in the terms Cotti, Briarei, and Gygii, 

In the civil war between Casar and Pompei/, Cottns, a king 
of Thrace, assisted the latter with five hundred horse. De. 
B. C. L. iii. In tlie same age, Cotus, or Cottus, was prince 
of an ancient, and of an honourable tribe, amongst the 
jEdui, the chief branch of all the Celtoi, Dc, B. G. L, vii. 
Tliis Titanic name had so far preserved its dignity in 
the region from which the Celta came, and also in thai 
which constituted their final settlement. 

The name of Briar ens may have been connected with 
Bria, or Briga, which, in Thrace, and all over Celtica, 
signified hreastzcork, or intrenchment, and hence, a fortified 
town. Breyr, pi. 1. Brcyrau, is Welsh, for a bar on or 
nobleman — master of a fortress. 

Cifges was a name locally attached in that neighbour-r 
hood. JlouH-r mentions Tvyair\ ^iiivriy under the mountaia 



206 

Tmolus, not far from Troi/. 11 ii. From the Gygii, Ire- 
land may have obtained the name Q.yvyixy which Plutarch 3 
one of the hest Greek antiquaries^ bestows upon it. 

Perhaps the Ogi/gia of Homer, which lay in a remote 
part of the worlds upon seas unknown, and was possessed 
by a daughter of Atlas, the Hyperborean, and general of 
the Titans, was in reality no other. 

The Titans, or Giants, were, after a long struggle, van- 
quished, and were driven to the TVest, into the regions of 
Pluto, the acknowledged progenitor of the Gauls. Thither 
they were attended by Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges, to 
whose charge they were committed ; that is, their chiefs, or 
their tribes, retained their names. 

This main contest, perhaps, originated in Asia, where 
the Titans were born — In the neighbourhood of Pallene, 
and of the mountains which covered the mouth of the 
Peneus, victory declared itself on the side of Jupiter, or 
his worshipers.- — ^As part of the same people, even after the 
conclusion of the war, continued in the country, and re- 
tained their national descriptions, it would be difficult, at 
this period of time, exactly to ascertain the route of the 
retreating parties. 

Some of them perhaps may have traced the banks of the 
Peneus, upwards, through Thessaly, and into Epirus, from 
whence Hercules afterwards expelled the Ccltce, and substi- 
tuted a Corinthian colony in their place. Anton. Lib. C. 4. 

Many of them entered Itali/. At Phlegra, in Cam- 
pania, they again made a powerful stand, and though sub- 
dued, their families remained in the country, for the Latin 
language must acknowledge its obligation to that of S^Coti^ 



207 

and we find the Alpine Cotii, in the time of Augustus, 
occupied that very district, in which the language of S'CqH 
is still spoken with great purity. 

But coming to^vards the Pannonias, Rhatia, and Vin-' 
delicia, in our direct road towards the North Western Ceitad, 
we fancy ourselves upon Scottish, or Irish ground. 

We must not look to their presetit inhabitants for the 
original or primary occupiers of these countries. No peo- 
ple^ speaking half Gothic, and the other half Sclavonian, 
could have imposed such names as the following, w4iich are 
chiefly Irish, and several of which occur in our British 
Islands, 

Cetius Mons. — *Ir. Ceide, a hill, mountain. 

Alhanus Mons. — Ir. Alb, Alban, a height, Alhayiach, 
Scotch, a Scotchman, 

Here dwelt the Coletiani — Caledonii, 

Gahhanoduruni — Ir. Gahhan, a strong hold, inclosure, 
and IJur, wafer. 

Bragodurum — Ir. Braghadh, a breast, bank, and Dur, 

Ectodurum — Ir. Eachda Dur, clean, pure zvater, 

Ebodurwn — Ir. Eba?i, Eab. mud, and Dur. 

Artohriga — Ir. Ard, Art, high, Breighe, breastwork. 



208 

Gesodunwn — Ir. Gais, a torrent, and Du7i, ^fortreas^ 
from Dunam, to shut, barricade. 

BrixanftB, a people, Brigantes, and the town Brigan- 
iium—^^c. &c. 

In the time of Herodotus, the Sigynae, a Thracian tribe, 
whose customs, as far as they are described, correspond ex- 
actly to those of the Beiges in Britain, inhabited these 
countries. Their territories bordered upon the Veneti, on 
the Adriatic, and extended on the North of the Danube. 
L. V. 9. Part of them were neighbours of the Ligurians, who 
called pedlars, Sigyna, perhaps as we now call them Scotch^ 
men. These Western Sigi/nee, by their situation, must have 
been the Segusini, Cottii, or Waldenses. The country of 
the SigyncE, North of the Danube, according to Caesar, 
Pe. B. G. VI. had been occupied, from remote periods, by 
the Volc(d Tectosages, who were Gauls, not Germans.* 
These, must have been the same as the Sigyna of Herodotu&^ 
and they were the same as the old Belgcz — • 

Voice TectosageSj^Yimsdxo nomine, Belga. 

Auson,. 

F^olc(R seems to come from the Gaulish Bolch, Volch, 
(W. Bwlch) a pass or defAe. They were also called, Are-^ 
comici,^Ar-Com-ec, a word of the very same grammatical 
structure as Armorec, and meaning occupiers of the passes. 



* Diod. Sic. L. V. C. 32, places proper CeltcE in the intermediate space, 
between the Alps and the Pyrenees, whilst he extends the name of Galatte 
to those who dwelt .beyond the limits of that Celtica, towards the South, 
near the Ocean, about tlie Hcrcipiian mountain, and as far as the borders of 
Scythia (or of the real Goths.) He compares the manners of these Gnuls, to 
those of Britons, who inhabited the Island Iris, or Ireland. He identifies 
Vlieni with ancient Cimmerii, and the Cimbri of his own days; and, in the. 
biginning of the next chapter, again comprehends them under the general nunifc 
*)f Celtic. 



S09 

*r defiles. These were their names^ amongst the Celt a of 
middle Gaul. But then* primaeval name, Tectosagcs, is 
purely Irish. — Teach, teaC) a house; — tosach, beginning, 
origin, 

A little to the north of the Danube, not far from the 
lource, amongst other names which exhibit the Irish cha- 
racter, we have Setaa-Cottum. Sithve, in Irish, means a 
$ity, or establishment: 

In the same tract, Ptolemy has placed the Ch^et-vori, — 
a little furtlier north, parallel to the Rhine, the Chatce, and 
Cas-variy are contiguous^ 

Perhaps we discover the Cotti again, in Duro-Cottorum, 
as it is in Ptolemy, a city of the Rhemi, who were a people 
of Belgium, and also of Britain. The continental Rhemi 
had a city, Bibrax ;-^and British Rhemi were Bibroci. The 
Sunici, a race about Limberg, had a city, named Corio- 
vallum; and the same people, before they had crossed the 
Rhine, were called Catti, and Cassi, (names also of British 
tribes). In their neighbourhood, on the East of the Rhine, 
and under the Abnobee montes, were the Carithni of 
Ptolemy, and the Th, after the Irish manner, being sup- 
pressed, the Carini of Pliny, descendants of the Vindelici, 
who must themselves have been Videlici, or Gwyddelic, 
for their geographical names are all Irish. 

Brigantes, Corii, Cotti, Catti, Cassi, &^c. were nameS;, 
then, which described families of the same nation. From 
the situation of these tribes, they were evidently the people 
who were anciently called, Alo-Brites, or Alo-Briges. 
Rav. (My Brithz0ys, ox Aly Brigivys,) and who^ after they 



210 

had settled about the channel of the Rhine, and the sea- 
coastj had the name of Belg<z, Uelga, or Ovihyui — Vyigy, 
in Cornish, is the sta, Gzveilgi, y zveilgi, in Welsh, \s flood, 
stream, sea, beds of water. That this was actually a 
British name of the Belgm, appears from No. XVII. of 
those triads which I have selected^ and in which (triad) 
a man of this nation is called Gwr Gweilgi. 

The Batavi, from whose territories I would import the 
Coried, Cotti, Catti, or Cassi, — were^ from the nature of 
their countiy^ most likely to equip themselves^ at an early 
period,, with a competent stock of boats^ or canoes^ to fit 
them for expeditions by sea; and they were descendants 
of the ancient Catti (Cotti) or Chassi, driven from 
home by domestic sedition^ in quest of new settlements. 
Tacitus. 

This^ was the popular tradition : and;, as accounts of this 
kind were miconnected with chronology, a national event 
of great^ and striking impression, at the distance of a thou- 
sand years, may have been as fresh in the memory of the 
people, as if it had happened in the time of their grand- 
fathers. — This family contest, then, may have been as old 
as the Titanic zvar. 

In the line of march which I have now traced, we find 
the Gothic language estabhshed, at present; and, perhaps, 
the country contained some tribes of Gothic origin in the 
age of the Roman empire ; but the Celtae- had gone over 
the same ground before them. They had given their names 
to the rivers, mountains, and fortresses. During thelt 
gradual retreat, these names became faniihar to their suc- 
cessors. 

It is usual for conquerors to retain such names^ — with 



211 

slight variations, which may accommodate them to thjeir 
own organs of speech. The Goths, have indulged this 
habit. Londinium, is their London, — Cantium, is Kent. The 
Goths, of North Britain, are Scots, — and the Englishmen 
©f the Western Isle, Irishmen. 



The Celtic nation,, at large, may be regarded as com- 
prising a race, of two different characters, though sprung 
from the same family. 

The one sort, were those who took peaceable possession 
of a country, which had not been previously inhabited, 
where they supported the character ascribed, in history, to 
the ancient Hyperboreans, establishing a national religion, 
the best calculated for securing peace among themselves ; 
but which, till it was gradually changed by political neces- 
sities, rendered its votaries incompetent for the defence of 
their country, or the support of their national inde- 
pendence. 

The other sort, were a people, who had less of scruple in 
their principles, but who, having been inured habitually to 
arms, before they approached the zvest, and, confiding in 
their native prowess, forced their way into many possessions 
of their unresisting brethren. 

In the Welsh, — the Armoricans, — and the Cornish, — un- 
disputed votaries of Druidism, — we recognise the former 
of these two branches, — and the latter, in the Irish, or 
in the Highlanders, It is not at all necessary to suppose, 
that, where these people established themselves, the others 

o 2 



212 

were either extirpated^ or entirely removed. They seem^ m 
several parts^ to have amicably incorporated. 

The Cymrijy acknowledge their obligation to many a 
CauVy or Cor J for useful arts^ for wholesome laws, and for 
equitable government: Where a mixture of their dialects 
prevailed, we may reasonably conclude, that both people 
were united. E, Lhoi/d,* ArchcRol. P. 221, furnishes a sin- 
gular instance of this mixture, in some ancient triplets^ 
whose grammar approaches nearer to the Wehh, though 
several of the words be Gzcyddelian. I shall extract his 
accouQt of them. 

" The following is the ancient language of Britons m 
the north of this Island, I found it in the first leaf of an 
old Latin book, on deca3^ed vellum, written in a Gzvydddian 
hand, about one thousand years ago (nozo ont thousand 
one hundred) By the writing, and by a few more words 
of the same language, I am certain, that the book has come 
from Scotland; and I can also compute the age of the 
manuscript. I know not, whether it is the language of the 
Strath-Clzoyd Britons, or of the Ficts, or old Caledonians. 
It is the oldest, and strangest British I have yet seen. I do 
not understand the aim, and meaning of the lines." 

By following, however, the sound of the letters, and the 
connection of the words, Llzcyd endeavours to reduce them 
into modern Welsh orthography, — and there he leaves them. 

These, are the lines in the original. 

Ni s^uorcosam (1) nemheunaur (2) henoid 



* See Llmid's errata. 



213 

Mi telu nit gurmaur (3) 

Mi amfranc dam (4) an calaur (5) 

Ni can ill (6) ni guardam ni cusam (7) henoid 
Cet iben med nouel (8) 
Mi amfranc dam an patel 

Na mereit un nep leguenid henoid 
Is discinn mi coueidid (9) 
Dou nam (10) ricem- imguetid. (11) 

An acquaintance with old orthography of the Welsh, 
joined with some knowledge of the Irish, or Gaelic, will 
qualify me to offer a version,, which, as I think, is not wide 

of truth. The subject appears to be this : — A principal 

officer, in a household, or a garrison, describes his de- 
jection, during the absence of a chief. It is not clear, 
whether he gives his real sentiments, or intends a com- 
pliment. 

'^ Spiritless (as I am) I will not study profit, this night. 
My household are not valiant — 
I will put away the cauldron.* 

The bard shall not sing ; I will not laugh : I will not feast, 
this night. 
Let men of renown drink mead together ! 
I will put away the pan.* 

Let no one meddle with mirth, this night. 
Till my supporter comes down : 
[When] my Lord comes, we shall feast to the full." 

(1) /. Gor, profit; Cos, consideration; Cosam, to study. 
(2) I. Neamh, a negative particle in composition ; Eonawr^ 



The cauldrm, the pan, used in preparing tbe ftast. 



214 

W, a spirited^ bold man. (3) I. Gur, valiant; Gurmkor, 
of great valour. (4) Mi ddodav, afranc, W. (5) An, 
the^ I. (6) /. File, Fhili, (pron. Hi) a bard, or poet. (7) /. 
CuSy enough; Cusam, to satisfy; W. Gwestav, I will en- 
tertain. (8) J. ]Vi/«Z/, noble, famous. (9) Ayweithydd,W, 
a supporter. (10) W, Nav, ^ lord. (11) W, Ymwythydd, 
dainties. 



It has been already intimated, that some respectable 
writers, who have treated of the Celtcz, have not been suffi- 
ciently careful, to discriminate between that race, and pro- 
per Ger mails y or the Gothic families. 

The consequence of this indefinite outline, has been a 
confused idea, respecting the difference of language, as re- 
ferable to those nations. 

The genius of the Celtic speech has not been separately 
analyzed: and vocabularies have united words, that have 
not the least intercourse, or analogy. 

Tire following remarks, it is hoped, will be calculated, in 
some degree, to remove this obscurity. 

As the Gauls, or Celt a, proceeded originally to the 
west, through Germany, long before the Goths occupied 
those regions, it is pretty evident, that many of their fami- 
lies halted by the way, and consequently, that Ahori^ 
gines, in several parts of that extensive region, were Celte, 
who remained in possession for a long series of ages. 

It mus:t also be remembered, that a period existed, in 



215 

^ which the CelttR of Gaul were the most powerful of nations^ 
in the west of Europe, — made incursions^ — and settled colo- 
nies in Germany.^ And this^ I beheve^ happened before 
the estabhshment of the Goths in that country. 

These pecuhar circumstances^ together with a defect of 
precision^ too frequent in describing strangers^ will account 
for the extent of the term Celta, as covering the north, just 
as we speak at present of Tartars, and of Indians, not 
adverting^ minutely, to distinctions^ amongst those who are 
imperfectly known to us. 

But this indefinite use of the name, can, surely, never be 
understood as meaning to impart the idea, that Celta, and 
Goths, constituted one, and the same, people. They are 
accurately distinguished, by, some of the best authors. They 
differed essentially in stature, complexion, habits, manners, 
language, as well as in every other character which marks 
unconnected nations. 

The families of the Goth are sufficiently ascertained : and 
the genius of his language is completely known, in its very 
numerous dialects. 

Those who occupied the interior of Gaul, distinguished 
themselves in their own language by the name of Ce/^^.f 
This name, then, when used with precision, means to de- 
scribe the people, of whom these Gauls constitute a part. 



* Goes. De. B. Gal. vi. 24. 

+ Cas. Be B. Gal. i. 1. This name pertained universally to the Gauls. " The 
custom of calling them Galut<B, or Gauls, has only prevailed of late; they were 
formerly named Cdm, both by themselves, and by others.'* Pnusan Attic, p. 6, 
hd. Sylb, 



216 

As this race, has_, in its various branches_, been subject^ for 
a series of ages, to masters, who contemplated their lan- 
guage, and their national prejudices, withequal jealousy, it 
cannot be expected that the Celtic tongue should, at this 
day, appear as brilliant, as that of the German tribes. 

If it survives at all, it must be explored amongst the de- 
pressed relics of the Celtcd, either in Gaul, or in those re- 
gions that were peopled by tribes of the same nation. Our 
British Islands are some of them. When detected, this lan- 
guage must present a character, materially different from 
that of the Gertnaii vocabularies, 

In parts of Gaul, and in these Islands, we find the re- 
mains of a people, who, for many generations, obstinately 
maintained their independence, and who have, to this day, 
preserved many peculiarities of national custom, together with 
certain, most ancient, and peculiar dialects, connected with 
each otber, but essentially differing from those of the Gotkie 
nation, as well as from the Latin. These congenial dialects 
must, then, be referred, of consequence, to some parent, 
stock ; — which can only be the Celtio, 

The dialects of Gaul appear to have been preserved, up 
to the period in which the power of thb i^omay? empire de- 
clined ; — tliis too, in parts of the territory, wherein a cha- 
racter of national independence could least be expected. 

The city of Treves, lay in that part of Gaul, where the'na- 
tives were mixed with invaders from Germany. Before it 
became a part of the 'Roman empire, and the seat of its 
provincial government, the chief men of that city affected 
a Gerninn origin, yet the populace had preserved their an-r 
qient language. St, Jcrom resided there, about A. D. 360, 



217 



and passing through Galatia, in Asia Minor, ten years 
afterwards^ he recognised the language of Treves. 

These long-separated people must^ therefore^ have retained 
the tongue_, which their common ancestors had used a thou- 
sand years before ; and the Galatians, here described, were 
descendants, not of the Goth, or German, but of the GauL 



^^ This," it may be said, '^ was the Belgic dialect, and there- 
fore different from that of Gallia CelticaJ' But the language 
of the Celta, under that name, had also been preserved. 

Ausonius, when celebrating the admired cities, after the 
death of the tyrant Maximus, towards the end of the fourth 
century, thus addresses a beautiful stream, that watered his 
native Burdi^ala, 



o 



Salve, urbis Genius, medico potabilis haustu 
DivoNA, Celtarum lingua — ^^ Fons addite divis!" 

Here we find the Celtic language, in a polished and let- 
tered city, in the very opposite coast of Gaul, quoted with 
respect, and upon a favorite subject, by a man of consular 
pre-eminence^ as presenting the accurate etymology of local 
names. 

It cannot, then, be doubted, that Celtic had hither- 
to flourished, in the retired parts of Gaul, remote from 
the Massilian Greeks, from the first province of the Romans, 
from the incursions of the Germans, and from the dialects 
of Belgium, or of Aquitania, 

That corner of Gaul, which may be included by the sea, 
aud by a line drawn from the mouth of the Seine, to that of 



218 

the Loire, answers all these descriptions. — It is the most in- 
sulated part of Gallia Celtica, And though we are not ex- 
pressly told that Celtic was preserved in this quarter, yet 
the same Aiiso?iius gives hints, which evidently import that 
proposition. It was thought a compliment, worthy of selec- 
tion, to Attiiis Patera, who was professor of literature, at 
JBurdigala, to record, not only that he was of Druidical 
origin, but that he had been zvarden ofBelerCs Fane, who 
was the Apollo of Druidical Paganism* 

Tu, Bagocassis, stirpe Druidarum satus. 

Si fama non fallit fidem, 
Beleni sacratum ducis e templo genus : 

Et inde vobis nomina — 
Tibi Paterce — sic ministros nuncupant 

Apollinares mystici. Prof. 4. 



And again. 



Nee reticebo senem. 

Nomine Phahitium, 

Qui Beleni aedituus 

Nil opis inde tulit; 

Sed tamen, ut placitum, 

Stirpe satus Druidum, 

Gentis Aremoricce, P^'tf* 10. 

Druidism, then, had found an asylum in Armorica, some 
ages after it had been proscribed, and suppressed in the rest 
of Gaul. The inhabitants of that, region, must, of course, 
have retained their national prejudices. 

The religion of the Druids, could not have subsisted, with- 
out an appropriate language; for the sacred code of the 



219 

order consisted of poems, and maxims, which had heen con»^ 
gecraj:ed by age^ and communicated {psissimis verbis, with 
punctilious care. These, it was a part of their superstition, 
to withhold from strangers^ so as to incur no risk of their 
publication, by writing, or translating them. Consequently, 
the pure Celtic of Druids had been preserved in Armorica, 

Immediately after the time of Auso7iius, we find the peo- 
ple of this district, self-detached from the tottering empire of 
Rome, and, at no distant period, maintaining their inde- 
pendence, against the force of the Ba7'barians,\\h.o invaded, 
and possessed the other parts of GauL 

The natural strength, and poverty of their country — the ac- 
cession of emigrating nobles, from other provinces — and the 
valour inspired by the reflection, that it was their last re- 
treat, enabled them to make a powerful stand. For many 
centuries, they remained a sovereign people, and have, to 
this day, preserved a language, essentially different from 
the German, though under few obligations to the Latin. 
Tliis can be no other than the Celtic of their progenitors. 

The romantic tales, which describe the exteraiination of 
the inhabitants, by those Britons, who accompanied the 
tyrant Maximus — the fifty thousand virgins, who were drown- 
ed, or butchered, — the Armor ican women, whose tongues 
were cut out, &c. &c. are not the materials of history. 
Maximus passed from Britain to the city of Treves, and 
proceeding to Italj/, as claimant of the purple, had oc- 
casion for all the force he could muster — but it proved 
ineffectual. 

The Muse of Ausonius pursues the ^^ Rutupiniis Latro," 
to the field of battle at Aquikia — she is mute, as to this 



S20 

hecatomb of the Armoricans, and represents the tempora 
tyrannica, as a poUtical storm that occasioned mschief, 
but soon blew over. 

Armorica, is a relative term, describing the region as a 
part of Gaul; but the inhabitants were Britanni in the 
time of Pliny, and perhaps before the name was known in 
this Island. When they became detached, as well as, inde- 
pendent, they drop'd the relative, and used the absolute name. 

All that seems to be historical, in the account of settle- 
ments from this country, is, that a race either descended 
from British nobility, or connected with it, sat upon the 
throne of Brit any, and that an asylum was there given to 
noble families of Britain, during the Saxon conquest, 
though not so many of them, as to aifect the language 
of the people. 

But the '^ Arinorican tongue," we are told, ^' is related 
^' nearly, to the Welsh, and Cornish."^ It must be so, if it be 

Celtic. — 

The Gauls, and Britotis, were originally one people* 

The sons of Gaulish families came to Britain for edu- 
cation.* In both countries, the disciples of Druidism 
learnt the same ancient poems, and studied the same oral 
maxims. The Druids of Britain, and Gaul, could, there- 
fore, have differed but little in their language. 

But in so large a country, as the jurisdiction of Druidism^ 



* Cacs. dc B. Gal. L. ri. 



221 

there must have heen shades of pecuharity^ amongst the 
vernacular idioms of the populace : and the Armorican, or 
Celtogalatian language^ in the days of CtBsar, appears to 
have differed from the JVehky much in the same degree as 
at present. 

In order to prove this^ I must have recourse to Etymo^ 
logy, who^ though a rash leader,, is a most valuable sub- 
altern. CcEsar calls the district^ civitates Armoriccs. Ar^ 
moric was, undoubtedly, a Gaulish term, describing the 
locality of these states. In Welsh, ar, is upon, — mor, the 
se«, — whence morig, maritime : the name, in that case, 
would import, supermaritime, a very awkward phrase. In 
Bas-Breton, ar, — the, mor, sea, — whence moric, or morec, 
maritime — the maritime (states). 

The Welsh call that country Llydazc, from Lied (Let) 
a side, and aw, water. But for the Welsh T, the Armori^ 
cans, at the end of their words, uniformly substitute ^S' — hard, 
which, the Romans frequently mark by the letter X. The 
Lexorvii are mentioned by Casar, as a people by the 
water side. 

This word is Armorican — Les, a side, and Govea,in com- 
position, ovetty water; literally the water side. 

The people of Le Perche, in the western extremity of 
the country, Q.re csWed Diab lint es. Diabell, in Bus- Bre- 
ton, is longinquns, plural, diahellint — the remote ones. In 
Welsh, they would have been called Pellejiig'ion 

From Belen, mentioned by Ausonius, in tlie passage 
above quoted, comes the Armorican Bel-cc, priest, pi. 
Beleien. — Patera, a minister of Apollo, is nothing more than 



222 

the Armotican, pdutr, a hoy, servant, or attendant* Ko^o$ 
and ka^yj, dixe Greek iox priest, oxidi priestess, of aji inferior 
class, and rank. See the Amycl. Inscrip* 

Divona must come, according to the interpretation of the 
Gallic Bard, hom. the Armorican, Due, Godf Di, divine, 
UYidfomij abimdant, overjiozcing. 

The Armorican tongue, having maintained its uninter- 
rupted station, in that pecuhar district, or division of 
Gaul, whose inhabitants called themselves emphatically, 
and icxr e|c%7!i', Celtcz, gives a rule to determine, what are^ 
and what are not, Celtic dialects. 

Here, the Cornish, and the Welsh, offer themselves as two 
sisters. The latter of these, if the uniform consistency of 
its preservation be considered; — if it be recollected that 
Britijh Druids were more pure than those of Gaul, — and 
that Welsh has monuments written, above a thousand years 
ago, (several of them evident relics of Druidism) may be 
regarded as the fairest copy of the language used, in the 
jurisdiction of British, and Gaulish Druids, 

It is probable, (and is countenanced by respectable tra- 
ditions) that when the Cymry were digesting, and metho- 
dizing, their system of Druidism — selecting their maxims, 
and composing those ancient poems, which fomied the basis 
of their history, theology, philosophy, and laws — they cul- 
tivated their language with peculiar attention. It became 
necessary for them to weigh the import of radical terms, 
— to adopt, with selection, such idioms and phrases, and 
such rules in derivation, or in composition, as would con- 
vey their meaning, with force and precision, to future ages. 
By those attentions, the vague, and capricious, habits of the 



223 

populace were control'd^ and the language of Druidism 
received^ in the z€est, a discriminate ciiaracter. 

But no sooner was Druidism completely established,, than 
of course^ it would follow^ that such maxims, andpoews^ as 
had then obtained the sanction of public reverence, must 
have operated, with peculiar efficacy, in ascertaining, pre- 
serving, and consecrating the language. They must have 
constituted a kind of standard for the words, and style, as 
well as for the religious precepts, and moral discipline, of 
succeeding Bards — upon the same principle, as the language 
of the Pentateuch was the model of composition to the 
Jezi)s. 

Translation was prohibited. But as the nobles were 
educated habitually by their Druid preceptors, they would 
naturally converse in that same language, which they had 
used in the period of their youth, and which contained, if 
I may so term it, their oral grammar. 

Their conversation would also have much influence upon 
the dialects of the people, with whom they lived. 

The people themselves must have been habituated both, 
to the language, or style of Druidism, as delivered in those 
public institutions, that were designed for their use 

The knowledge of the dialects, which prevailed amongst 
those tribes, who acknowledged the supremacy of British 
Druids, will enable us to ascertain the character of the 
Celtic language, and, at once, to mark it, wherever it may 
be found. 

This character strongly appears in the Iri^h, the jBf5<r, 



^24 

dnd the Walden&k, which, though long separated from the 
Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armorican, still acknowledges 
a general affinity, and correspondence to these dialects,^ 
in radical terms, and in some essential principles of 
grammar- 

■ General Vallancey has proved, that Irish has a certain 
degree of connexion with Chaldaic, Arabic, Persian, Cop^ 
tic, and Fhanician. 

From these premises, and from other data, which are in-^ 
geniously argued, he infers, that, in the Irish, we are to 
acknowledge emigrants from India, to the coast of Arabia j, 
Egypt, and Phoenicia, and from the latter country, by sea, 
through Spain, to the British Islands,^ 

I feel infinite respect for the General's learning and abi- 
lities \ I acknowledge that much of his reasoning has force^ 
in it ; but I am not prepared, implicitly, to receive his com-> 
plete hypothesis. 

Without presuming to decide, whether part of the faniily^ 
may not have taken the route here traced for them, or at- 
tempting, at this distance of time, and space, to read their 
monuments in Asid, before they appeared upon its western 
coast, I would offer the following observations. 

The Irish language has a more striking affinity with dia- 
lects which are confessedly Celtic, than it has with any of 
the-^szafzc languages; it maybe therefore presumed, that 
it is, in the main, a language of that race, and family. 

The Celt(E, or Gomerit<£, being an important branch of 
the Noachidcd, may have retained a respectable dialect of 



225 

the patriarchal speech^ which may have possessed much of 
analogy to those primeval dialects of Asia, without incurring 
the imputation of a loan from any one of them. 

The l7Hsh language appears to have arrived at maturity 
amongst the lapetidce, while they were yet in contact with 
Aramean families^ and formed a powerful tribe in Asia 
Minor, and in Thrace. It may^ therefore^ in particular in- 
stances, have more similitude, or analogy to the Asiatic 
dialects, than what appears in those branches of the Celtic, 
that were matured in the west of Europe. 

Those who used this language, consisted partly of Titans, 
of Celto-Scythians, or of those lapetida, who assisted in 
building the city of Babel, and must have been habitu- 
ated, after the dispersion, to the dialects of tlie nations 
through which they passed, before they joined the society 
of their brethren. This, may account for some instances 
wherein the Irish corresponds with Eastern language, where 
it also differs the most from the Celtic of the Welsh, and 
Bus-Bretons, 

I have already remarked, that Irish, or a congenial 
dialect, once prevailed in Thrace, and was diffused from 
thence, all the way to the islands of Britain, whilst, at the 
same time, it branched off to the Italian side of the Alps, 
Part of this family, then, at least, must have readied 
their destination by land. 

A fact, which I apprehend has irresistible force, is the 
identity of the Irish, and Waldensic languages. The latter 
is in use amongst those, who inhabit a few Alpine valleys, 
neas the fountains of the Fo, and whom the German in- 



226 

vaders called by the name of the Waldenses, I suppose from 
Walden,— ^Forests, a very apt name for the original, and 
primitive occupiers of so wild a region. It appears, from 
their situation, that, unquestionably, they are the very same, 
who, in the Augustan age, were named Cottii, which, if 
taken from the Celto^Galatian, is perfectly synonimous 
to Waldemes, 

Welsh, Cott: Corn,t Cuit ; Armor, Coat, Si/lva, The 
Gauls, who possessed themselves of the neighbouring coun- 
try, had then designated them as the Syhcstres, for the 
same reason: — ^The ancestors of these Cottii, and of 
S'Coti, in British Islands, were indisputably the same 
people. 

These people appear, to constitute one branch of the 
Titanic Celtae, who were bending their course westward from 
Thrace, and were therefore ancient inhabitants of Italy ^ 
but if it should be argued, that they are the remains of those 
Gauls, who crossed the Alps, about five hundred years 
hefore Christ, and who are pronounced, (ex cathedra,) 
by Mr, Pinkerton, to have been Belga, still there is no 
reason to suppose, they had come from the Islands of 
Britain, or had arrived at that spot, by sea, from the 
East. The language and the people travelled zvestzf}ard, and 
by land. 

Neither history, nor tradition, confirms the hypothesis, 
that Fhocnicians planted a colony in British Islands, 
Ptolemy imports none of their inhabitants from Egypt, or 
Phcenicia, nor Mela, from the Poeni, or the Aborigines of 
his native Spain. There is no hint of any Phanician colo- 
nies, in these islands, prompted by the ancient historians, oc 
geographers, who collected their intelligence from actual 



227 

remarks, upon the men, or upon the manners, and from 
continental, or insular traditions. 

Let the period have been ever so early, in v^rhich the 
Ph(£7iicians procured their tin from British Islands, by 
the intercourse of the natives virith Celtic Relations in 
Spain, yet it appears, that Phoenicians had no early ac- 
quaintance with Britain, Before the aggrandizement of 
Carthage, the power and the influence of these Phajiicians, 
even in Spain, must have been very diminutive indeed. If 
the pillars of Hercules had not hitherto constituted the ab- 
solute boundary of their navigation, yet their connection 
with the exterior coast could have been only that of traders. 

Justin asserts, that Phoenicians, when erecting the city 
of Gades, in a little island, very near the shore, were so 
violently opposed by the natives of Spain, as to call in 
auxiliaries from the rising colony of Carthage, who, send- 
ing a numerous fleet, as well as army, seconded their opera- 
tion, and secured, for themselves, a considerable territory, 
in the contiguous province of Batica, Maur, Ind, Ant, 
V. vi. P. 272. Justin, lib. xliv. 

Their actual intercourse with Britain had not yet 
commenced. 

We are informed, by Festus Avienus, cited by Bochart, 
*^ that Hamilco, a Carthagenian general, the first of his 
name, had been sent, about the time of Darius Nothus, 
(four hundred and twenty years before Christ) by the 
senate of Carthage, to discover the Western shores, and 
ports of Europe: that he successfully accomplished the 
voyage^ and that he wrote a journal of it, which Festus 



228 

Avienus had seen : that^ in that journal, the Islands of 
Britain are mentioned, by the name of Oestrymnides, 
Islands infested by the Oestrum, or Gadfly, Meur, ib. 
P. 275. From Boch. Canaan, L. i. C. So, 39- 

With Bocharfs leave, I must remark, that Hamilco's 
discovery, v^^as rather of the Scilly Islands, than oi Britain, 
and tliat it was only after the discovery zoas made, that 
either Tartesians, or Carthaginians had visited [them, for 
the purpose of trade. They found the natives rich iu tin, 
as well as in lead, and addicted strenuously to commerce, 
which they had carried on in their national vessels. 

-Turbidum late fretum. 



Et belluosi ffuro'item oceani secant- 

rei ad miraculum, 

Navigiajunctis semper aptant pellibus, 
Corioque vastum saepe percurrunt salem. 

Avienus, quoted in Camden's Cessiteridos. Ed. Gibson, 

The barks, covered with skins, that served them to na- 
vigate the rough channel, and the gulf of the raging ocean, 
were British, or Celtic barks. The natives, then, had been 
the carriers from the Cassiterides, which foreigners had 
known hitherto by fame alone, and by their produce ; but 
which Herodotus, who wrote about forty years before the 
voyage of Ilamilco, knew not where to find. 

Whether the Carthaginian added the Cornish promon* 
tories to his discoveries or no, the name, and the etymology 
of Oestrytn?iides constitute a whimsical blunder in trans- 
lating from British. Cler, mesLiis Gadflies: but observe 
another meaning of the word. '' Cler, The teachers. 



229 

or learned mcQ of the Druidical order, who_, under the 
bardic systieni, were^ by their privilege^ employed^ in go- 
ing periddTcal" circuits^ to instruct the people, answering 
the purpose of a priesthood." Ozcen, Welsh Diet, in Vqc, 
It may be concluded^, then, I apprehend, that when the 
Carthaginians discovered these islands, they found them 
iiifested, nothj Gadflies, hvX Cler-Druids. — ^This palpable 
mistake, accompanied by that name, will acquit ihcm of any 
hand in establishing this order. 

As these tribes,'which formed thelrish nation,bore the names 
of those who are known to have been the Beiges, so their 
language, I think, may be regarded as the ancient Belgic. 

Doubts have been entertained respecting this language, 
in consequence of CcKsar's assertion, that many of the 
JBelgce originated from Germa7iy, But this, does not prove 
them to have been of the Gothic family, who in the time 
of Ca^ar, were not the sole, nor, perhaps, the most nu^ 
merous, inhabitants of Germany, 

Those, of the Belgce, who were called Germans, were 
most probably Celtic tribes, whose removal to the Z€est of 
the RhiW, was. in the memoiy of tradition. 

T«cz7 MS held a respectable office in Belgium, The Ian* 
guage, the persons, and the manners of the Goths, and the 
Gauls, were equally familiar to him. But this acute observer, 
laughs at the absurdity of those Treviri, who w^ere the 
people of most consequence in Belgium, for affecting a 
German origin. — '' Tanquam, per banc gloriam sanguinis, 
a siMiLiTUDiNE et in^Ytik Gallorum separentur." He 
finds no real Germans in Belgium, except a few small 
tribes^ who inhabited i/;srtm' r/uvu' ripam^ the very bank 



230 

of the Rhiney amongst whom were the Ubii, brought over 
the Rhine by Agrippa : and again^ ^' Per ipsam rheni 
ripam collocati" These^ with an absurdity no less re- 
diculous, blushed at their origin, and sunk their natipxxal 
name in that of Agrippinenses, 

It is probable, then, that even these tribes, used the 
Gaulish language; and indeed it appears, that very few of 
those who inhabited the west of the Rhine, spoke the German. 

The whole of Belgium was a Roman province, in the 
time of Caligula, This emperor had the ambition, though 
he had not spirit enough, to attempt an invasion of Ger- 
many. Under that pretence, he went as far as the Rhine, 
He then ordered, that some of the German guards might 
be ferried over, and suborned by this artifice, and concealed. 
It was arranged, that a kind of tumultuous message to him, 
after dinner, should announce the enemy at hand. Sallying 
forth, he took these willing captives, and some German hos- 
tages afterwards, who had been suffered, for this purpose, to 
escape, and brought them back, chained, as deserters. These 
captives were deemed, by him,a fit subject of ailomao triumph. 

*^ Conversus hinc in curam triumphi, praeter captives et 
transfugas barbaros, Galliarum quoque procerissimum 
quemque, ct, ut ipse dicebat, a|»6^5»af*S£VTov, ac nonnullos ex 
principibus legit, ac seposuit ad pompam : coegitque non 
tantum rutilare et promittere comam, sed et sermonem 
Germanicum addiscere, et nomina. barbarica ferre." Sutton 
Calig. 47. 

" Turning his thoughts to this triumph, besides the barba- 
rian captives, and fugitives, he selected the tallest individuals 
of the Gaulish provinces, and some of their chiefs, and set 



them apart, for the better grace to his procession, and he 
obhged them, not only to redden their hair, and let it grow 
long, but also to learn the German language, and assume 
barbarous names." 

Tliis very peculiar selection, and preparation, would have 
been superfluous, had any considerable number of his 
Belgian subjects resembled the Germans, in their stature, 
in the fashion, or colour of the hair, their language, or 
their proper names. 

It was, therefore, a Gaulish, not a Gothic dialect, which 
prevailed in ancient Belgium : and the identity of names 
amongst the Belgic, or Irish tribes, is not the only topic 
of resemblance, which induces me to persuade myself, that, 
the Irish and the ancient Belga; were the same, I must 
add, the facility which resolves the names of men, rivers, 
towns, and other places, in Belgium (Gaulish or British) 
or amongst the Tectosages in Aquifania, and on the 
banks of the Danube, into Irish, 

It is recorded, that many inhabitants of British Belgium^ 
were pushed forwards into Cornwall, or towards its borders, 
upon the aggrandizement of the Saxons. — Accordingly, of 
the Welsh, Armorican, or Cornish dialects, the latter has. 
the most afl[inity with Irish, 

In the Irish, the Erse, and the Waldensic, I, therefore, 
distinguish the Celtic of those tribes, that were not fully 
included within the pale of British and Gaulish Druids, 
and consequently, whose language was not affected by 
the cultivation which those Druidical sages bestowed 
upon tlieir national tongue, after their arrival in the west 
of Europe, The Irish appc^ars to be, upon the wholQ^ 



232 

better preserved than either the Erse, or Waldensic: it 
contains abundantly more of written documents; but as 
the difference between them all^ is trifling;, I shall speak of 
them in general as Irish, and shall remark some particulars 
in that language^ which appear as defects; but yet more 
arising from the accidents it has undergone^ than as being 
the inherent parts of its genius and character. 

As it has long been the language of the populace, local 
usage has thrown such irregularity upon its verbs, that gram- 
marians conceived them to be governed by no rule, till Gene- 
ral Vallancey demonstrated the error of that opinion, in 
Ireland, SLudilSlx:, Shaw y in Scotland. 

The poets have been long in the habit of substituting E 
for /, or /for E, and of using A O ox U indifferently, in 
composition, and sometimes in simple primitives. This 
habit, which rather saVours of the Eastern school, is evi- 
dently injurious. 

In opposition to the general usage of ancient languages, 
the Irish fall into a compendious method, of making but 
one syllable, and frequently but one sound, out of as many 
vowels as come together in a single word. 

Several of the consonants, in composition, are either 
silenced by a point, or an ET, or so changed and softened 
in the mode o{ oral delivery, that one's ear is no longer 
able to judge of the component parts, in a multitude of 
coAipound words. In this abuse, the neighbouring Scotch 
imitate the Irish, because they have been generally in the 
habit of using Jrzs/i books, and masters. 

It is evident, that such customs did not prevail anciently. 



233 

In the same degree as at present/and^ consequently^ that in 
their mode of pronouncings thley have innovated upon the 
language. For those letters which are equally written by 
the Irish, and Welsh, or by the JTrzsAy and Wal dense s, are 
audible in one language, when they are silent in the^ other: 
and it maybe talten for granted/ that the common ancestors 
of these people, acquired their terms by the ear, not the 
eye : or that sounds, like these, originally were uttered, which 
are equally retained, by their symbols , in each dialect. 

As the Celtic dialects are more valuable, for the- jferpose' 
of unfolding antiquity, than for general use, the written 
Irish, and its oldest orthography, are preferable to the 
Oral 

To the antiquary, this language is of the utmost im- 
portance. It is rich, in pure and simple primitives, and 
which are proved such — by the sense and structure of the 
longest written compounds-^by their supply of many roots 
which have long been obsolete, in the Welsh and the 
Armorican, but still occur in the compounds of these 
languages, — and by their use, in connecting the Celtic 
dialects with Latin, with Greek, with Gothic, and perhaps 
with some of the Asiatic languages. 

I would not be understood as meaning, that our Welsh 
came into the possessions of a different family, who spoke 
the Irish language; but I do mean, and represent, that 
many of the simple primitives, formerly possessed by them, 
and still preserved by the Irish, have been generally dis- 
used, though occurring in the oldest writers, and in the 
derivative, or compounds of their present language. The 
qase with Irish is exactly parallel — Many words that are 



234 

marked as obsolete, in their glossaries, are still understood 
bj the common people in Wales, 

Both of the nations, then> have thrown aside a part of their 
ancient stores : But as the Irish retain a more ample num- 
ber of simple terms, than we do, and as the several tribes 
which use this dialect, or those connected with it, were not 
completely received into the pale of British Druidism, it may, 
I think, be inferred, that the Irish, after we have discarded 
its eastern, and such other adventitious terms, as cannot be 
derived from its native roots, presents the most accurate 
copy of the Celtic in its original, and primitive state, in 
the same manner as the Welsh does that, of the cultivated, or 
Druidical Celtic, But in order to obtain a sound and a deep 
knowledge, of the general, and the discriminate character 
in the Celtic^ we should compare all these dialects to- 
gether. 

I shall add some discriminate marks of the Celtic, con->- 
sidered as one language. 

Its elementary sounds are of two kinds — F'rimary, ex-^* 
pressed by the sixteen letters used by the ancient Greeks,^ 
with an addition of the Digamma. — Secondary/, or inflec- 
tions of the former; as, Bh, or F, from B; Ch, or x, ^oni 
C; Dh, or Dd, (as th in that) from D, ^c. 

All words used absolutely, or out of regimen, begin with 
primary sounds, except a few modern corruptions, in 
Cornish, and Armorican, which admit of the F; and Welsh 
words in Ch, where the initial, vowel, or syllable, ia. 
dropped. 

Primary sounds, in composition, are not only changed 



235 

mto their secondaries, but admit also of inflection amongst 
themselves^ and are changed, in conformity with certain 
rules^ into others, of the same organ; as, P into B; C into 
G; Tinto A*c. 

These characters distinguish the Celtic from the Gothic, 
and most other languages. 

The roots are very simple. A single vowel, or a diph- 
thong, not only forms a particle, as in other languages; 
but frequently a noun, and a verb. There are few, if any, 
combinations, consisting of a single primary consonant, fol- 
lowed by a vowel, or diphthong, or of any consonant, pre- 
ceded by a vowel, or dip thong, which have not their mean- 
ing, and which do not even preside at the head of a nu- 
merous family. Into such roots as these, we can resolve 
the longest words that are purely Celtic, 

Tlie roots, must not be considered as absolute, or fixed 
names of objects; as earth, water, tree, stone, S^c, but as 
the expressions, or marks of leading ideas ; or as describing 
certain modes of existence, or of operation, which present 
themselves to our senses: and therefore, as agreeing, so 
far, in their nature, to the roots of the Hebreze, as they are 
developed by the learning, and genius of Parkhurst, 

Thus, for example, the Irish Ur, signifies, a covering over, 
a spreading upon. Hence it is transferred by them to a va- 
riety of objects, &c. in which this image presents itself; as 
mould, earth, jire, water, verdure, heath, evil, slaughter, 
brave, very, <^c. 

The Welsh verb a, <' will proceed,'* or, '^ go forth," — 



236 

hence it signifi^SV^^-^a^feter dialect— an ascent ^ hill/ pro- 

This mode of appropriation,, is natural.— IF man 'invented 
language, or if he received such rudiments of speech as 
were conformabfe to the laws of his nature, his first efforts 
must have been, to describe things for which he had, as yet, 
no definite names, and which he only knew, by the impres- 
sion made upon Kis nerves and senses. ' ' 

Compounds, derivatives, and the accidents o? Celtic words, 
are produced, not by the junction of unmeaning sounds, to 
the original term, but by incorporating with it, roots of n 
known value. 



^3-irtyift} 



^37 

• : .jsjiiiJOODii b3Jib^t:>Oj» 

Sect. IV. Prohahility, resulting from the hints of clas- 
sical zoriters, that our Druids were acquainted with let- 
ters. — Natio7ial evidence of the Celtic tribes, upon this 
topic. — And first ; ofDmidical Tokens^ or Syinbols. 



I 



N order to obtain the accurate perception of the arts, 
amongst any ancient people^ it is necessary to fix the at- 
tention_, upon certain prominent objects,, and consider them 
separately. I^ therefore^ propose, in this, and the follow- 
ing sections, to examine the Celtic pretensions to the know- 
ledge of letters, previous to the Roman intercourse ; and, 
as well as I can, to ascertain the means they possessed, as 
well as the methods they used, for the purpose of conveying 
their ideas, to a distance of time, or place. 

No question, relating to this primitive nation, has been 
more eagerly discussed, or more unsatisfactorily determined. 
According to some antiquaries, these Druids , amongst those 
of the Celtic tribes, in which they obtained an establishment, 
had an alphabet, either peculiar to their countrymen, or 
else borrowed from the Phoenicians, or from Greek schools, 
at Marseilles ; whilst others positively deny, that our Druids, 
of these islands, had the use of letters, or any other me- 
dium, for the record of their facts, besides oral tradition, 
or the songs of the Bards. 

For this diversity of opinion, it is easy to account. The 
learned can discover no books, nor inscribed monuments 
of the Celt(£, previous to the epoch of Christianity, They 



238 

take it for grantedj that na ancient, authentic, and well- 
accredited accounts, remain amongst the descendants of this 
people ; they labour, therefore, to decide the question, by 
the single authorities of Greek , and Roman writers. 

These, furnish a few hints, upon the subject, which may 
serve as grounds of dispute; but nothing clear, and 
positive enough, to silence contradiction. Writers, there- 
fore, decide this question, variously, according to their 
preconceptions respecting the Celte, 

When I again quote a few passages, wliich have been 
already adduced, and a few observations of my learned 
predecessors in this field, I must assume the liberty of con- 
sidering the literature of the Gaulish and British Druids, 
who composed but one body, as resting upon the same 
ground. And it is clear, to me, that Cctsar adverts to the 
Druids of both countries, in the following remarks : — 

Neque fas esse existimaiit ea [quae ad disciplinam perti- 
nent] litteris mandare quum, in reliquis fere rebus, pub-- 
iicis privatisque rationibus, Grjscis utantur litteris. 

Id mihi, duabus de causis, instituisse videntur ; quod 
neque in vulgum disciplinam efferri velint, neqtie eos qui 
discant, Uteris confisosy minus memori{R studere, jB. GaL. 
L. vi. 

'' Nor do they deem it lawful, to commit those things 
(which pertain to their discipline) to writing; though, 
generally, in other cases, and in their public, and private 
accounts, they use Greek letters." 

*' They appear, to me, to have established this custom. 



239 

for two reasons ; because they would not have their secrets 
divulged, and because they would not have their disciples 
depend upon written documents, and neglect the exercise 
of memory." 

This passage furnishes no more proof, that the Druids 
were (even comparatively,) illiterate, than our prohibition 
of religious pictures, and images, which prevail in Roman 
Catholic Churches, can be received as proof, that we are 
(comparatively) ignorant of painting, or sculpture. C(Esar*s 
probable reasons, for a marked prohibition of letters in a 
certain case, forcibly argue, that our Druid was a master 
©f their import: and this prohibition, being an institute, or 
fundamental part of his laxv, evinces, that such knowledge 
was not recent. Nor is it asserted, that his order had 
Greek letters alone. The word^ere, (generally,) appears 
to intimate the reverse. We, for example, generally use 
Roman letters ; but, on some occasions, we employ the 
national, and the old English characters. 

The Roman general wrote a dispatch to Cicero, (Quint us) 
in Greek, that his letter might not be intercepted, and by 
that event his enterprize discovered by the Nervii. BeL 
Gal, L. V. 

And, I think, it was, principally, that circumstance, which 
induced Jos, Scaliger, to expunge the word " Gracis," in 
the passage above cited-. 

But in this he took a wanton liberty with his text. The 
tablets of the Helvetii, a Gaulish people, were *^ Litteri^i 
Qracis confecta," 

May it not be supposed, that the GquIs generally, wrote 



240 . ' 

tlieir own language in letters much resembling Greek, 
though not exactly the same ; and that,, whilst those Gauls, 
who attended the Roman army^ were explaining the con- 
tents of the Helvetian tablets^ Casar having the curiosity, 
himself, to look at them, had remarked the affinity between 
Gaulish characters^ and those of Greece, 

There are soUd grounds for the. inference, that, m C(Bsar'& 
age, the alphabets of these two nations were not exactly 
the same. 

Mr, Astle, (who has discussed the subject of ancient 
letters, with consummate ability) gives a series of Gaulish 
characters, w^hich are somewhat similar to those of Greece. 
They were taken from the monumental inscription of 
Gordian, the messenger of the Gauls, who suffered mar- 
tyrdom, in the third century, with all his family. 

The author thus reports of them : " These ancient Gaulish 
characters were generally used, by that people, before the 
conquest of Gaul by Ccesar ; but after that period, the 
Roman letters were gradually introduced." Origiii and 
progress of wj^iting. P. 56, with reference to Nouveau 
Traite de Diplom. V. i. P. 704. 

And again, P. 57. ^' The ancient Spaniards used let- 
ters, nearli/ Greek, before their intercourse with the Ro- 
mans, which may be seen in N. T, de DipL V. i. P. 705." 
See other authorities there cited. Astle. P. 86. 

The inhabitants of Gaul, and of Spain, had, therefore, 
letters, resembling those of Greece, previously to the inter- 
course with Home : and I would thence infer, that letters 



241 

must have been, at kast^ in some degree, known to, our 
British Druids, the avowed masters of the Gaulish order. 

This inference is counter-signed by positive credentials. 
I have ah-eady shown, that under the name of Hyperbo- 
reans, the older Greeks described the order of Druids, 
especially those of this island. And though I have not an 
opportunity of authenticating the passage, I confidently 
rely upon the evidence of the respectable writer above 
named, that " Plato, somewhere mentions Hyperborean 
letters, very different from Greek'' Astle, P. 46. 

Whatever difference Plato may have remarked, between 
the letters of Greeks, and those of Druids, or Hyperbo- 
reans, it appears, that, in the time of this philosopher, they 
were so far dissimilar, as to constitute a distinct series. The 
Celt(R, therefore, had not, recently, acquired the know> 
ledge of letters, from their Greek school at Marseilles, 

Some tribes of this nation must have possessed this know- 
ledge from remote antiquity. Strabo says, of the Turdi^ 
tani, in Spain. — '^ These are the wisest amongst the Ibe- 
rians, They have letters, and written histories, of ancient 
ti'ansactions, and poems, and laws in verse, as they assert, 
six thousand years old." 

This people could not have been the descendants of the 
Phoenicians, who were obliged, about four hundred years 
before the time oi Strabo, to employ a Carthagenian fleet, 
and army, for their protection, whilst they were building a 
single town in one of the Islands, near the shore. 

Had the letteps of the Tvrditani, been Phcenician, they 
must have been so recognised, and claimed. They could 



242 

not^ in that case^ have been the subject of national boast. 
The arrival of the Phoenician traders^ upon the coast of 
Spain, though an ancient event, was in the reach of his- 
tory. The introduction of letters amongst the Turditaiiiy — 
as appears from the exaggeration of their chronology, a 
little tempered and qualified, — -was lost in its antiquity. 

When their " six thousand years y"* have been reduced 
within bounds of probability, it must be acknowledged, that 
at least they have claimed the use of letters, from the tim^ 
when they first became a distinct society. They seem evi- 
dently to have branched from the Celtic stock. Mela, the 
geographer, born in the neighbourhood, and, therefore, no 
stranger to its inhabitants, omitting tlieir name altogether, 
extends the TurduU over those regions, about the banks 
of the Jnas, which Ftolemy, and some others, divide be- 
tween the Turduliy and the Turditani, This learned 
Spaniard, then, regarded them as one people, and he 
places their ancestors, or the TurduU veteres, in the middle 
of Lusitania, a coast, as to which he affirms, — ^' Totam 
Celtici colunt." L. iii. Ij, 

This people, then, had preserved very ancient letters, 
which belonged to the Celtic nation : and it has not, alto^ 
gether, escaped the notice of the learned, that from remote 
antiquity, the Celta^ possessed letters, not very dissimilar to 
those of the ancient Greeks, 

Non desunt qui priscos Druidarum character as, et 
elegantes, et Greeds similes, fuisse credunt. Xcnophonte, 
siquidem, et Archilocho testihus, Uterarwn JigurcB, quas, 
in Graeciam, h Phoenicia Cadmus intuUt, Galaticis, 
• quam Punicis sire Phceniciis, similiores extitireJ* Bucher, 
Fro, p. 133. 



243 

" There are those who thiiik the Driiidsh^di ancient cha- 
racters, which were both elegant, and similar to those of the 
Greeks, For according to the testimony of Xenophoiij and 
ArchilochuSj the figures of those letters, which Cadmus 
brought out of Photmcia into Greece, resembled Gaulish, 
rather than Punic, or Phanician characters." 

We cannot accuse either Xenophorij or Archilachus, of 
recording absolute nonsense. They must have meant, that 
the Gauls, or CeltiB, from remote antiquity, even before 
the supposed aeraof Cadmus, had possessed letters, that were 
similar to those which had been ascribed usually to that 
celebrated personage. 

There are some grounds, then, for the opinion, that the 
Celt{K were acquainted with letters, long before the esta^ 
bhshment of the famous Greek school at Marseilles, 

The similarity of the two series, is a good argument of 
their common origin; but it furnishes no clue for the dis- 
covery of their first proprietors. *^ Did the Celt^B borrow 
letters from Greece? or Greece, from the Celt(K? 

The invention of letters is concealed in the darkness of 
time. I, therefore, think it most reasonable to suppose, that 
both nations derived them from a cDnxmon ancestor, 

Mr, Astle, having diligently weighed the opinions, and 
authorities, of his predecessors, declares — ^^ It might be im^ 
proper to assert, that letters were unknown before the de* 
luge, recorded by Moses:' V, 46, 

He obseorves, that—" Three opinions have prevailed, re- 
specting the origin of the Greek letters; the first, that Cad- 
et o 



mus was the inventor ; the second attributes them to Cecrops ; 
and the thirds uith more reason, to the Pelasgi." P. 66, Note. 

Tliis general name of Pelasgi, comprehended a very con- 
siderable part^ of the early inhabitants of those countries, 
which Moses assigns_, exclusively, to the lapetidce. Their 
character seems to identify them with Titans of this fa- 
mily, the Celto-Sci/thay or those' descendants of Japketh, 
who had been concerned in building the tower of Babel. 
The same idea is confirmed, by the names of several of 
tlieir tribes ; Thesproti, Caucones, Macareij Aegeones, Cy- 
ncethi, Titanes, S^;c. ApoUodor. L. iii. S» 

Their families were, at an early period, spread over 
Greece, and several regions of iJ^/'opf, or ancient Ce/^/ctf ; 
and these families may, as far as the introduction of an al- 
phabet can have depended upon themy have carried the 
same copy, wherever they went. 

Mr. Astld pronounces the Etruscan alphabets to be 
Pelasgian ; — he cites the authority of Herodotus, that a co- 
lony of these, went by sea, from Lydia, into Italy, under 
Tyrrhenus, and he dates this expedition, about A. M. 2011, 
or, 1993 years before Christ. P. 53. 

Taking this proposition, as I find it stated by him, I 
would remark, that such Pelasgi, as came into Europe 
from the shores of Asia Minor, in the time of those post 
diluvian patriarchs, by whom the earth zoas divided, — were, 
undoubtedly, lapetidce, and probably, comprehended fa- 
milies, both of Comer's, and of Javan's house, who had, 
thus far, an equal claim to the knowledge of letters. 

This little sketch may suffice, to shew the goieral pro^ 



245 



hahility, arising from ancient evidence, and from the tes- 
timony of surviving monuments, that, zceste?'?i Cdtcc, and 
their Druids, were, from remote periods, acquainted with 
letters, (however they may have quahfied, or prohibited, the 
use of them) and had an alphabet, similar to that of the an- 
cient Greeks, which yet, was not recently borrowed from 
that people, but sprung from a remote, and common origin 
to both nations. 



The following observations_j drawn from sourses less ac- 
cessible to men of letters^ will, perhaps, throw some new 
light, upon this interesting subject. 

It is a fact, generally known to those who are at all con- 
versant in the language, and the history, of the Wehh, — that 
some very old works of Brithh Bards, are still extant, 
particularly those of Aneurin, Taliesin, and Lli/warch lien, 
who lived in the sixth century. See jB. Llzii/d'is Catalogue 
of British MSS. ArchceoL P. 2<54, 8c c. — and Evans's Spe- 
cimens, London, 1764. P. 54, Q3, Sec. 

These works possess all the internal, and the external 
marks of authenticity, that can^ with reason be demanded. 
They agree with Saxon authors in their account of histo- 
rical facts, which the modern Welsh, without their aid, 
could never have reached. 

Their authors are mentioned in the oldest and best, 
copies of ^ennius. Evans, P. 66. 

They are frequent objects of allusion, and are often quot- 
ed by their successors, in the times of the JVelsh princes; — 



246 

many of them are still preserved^ in co{>iei> on vellum, from 
five hundred,, to eight hundred years old^ Llwyd, 

It is clear^ from the testimony, and the general tone of 
these Bards, that the memory of Druids was neither ob- 
literated, nor lightly esteemed, amongst Britons of their 
time. They not only declare, and profess, a veneration for 
the doctrine of those reverend sages, but avow their obli- 
gation to them for much of their ov/n science. 

Taliesin, who is called the chief of the Bards, expressly 
declares, himself to have been received into the order of 
Druids, and professes to inculcate several of their genuine 
doctrines. Many of his remaining poems treat largely on 
the metempsychosis, — the formation of the zvorld, and of 
man, — the nature, and first principles of things, — or other 
mysterious subjects, which have been ascribed, eminently> 
to the order of Druids. 

In the works of such Druidical disciples, it will not be 
unreasonable to expect more particular information re- 
specting the arts, or traditions, of the Druids, than such as 
can be obtained from Greek, and Roman, writers. 

Respecting the subject before us, it may be collected from 
these documents, that our Druids possessed a general si/s- 
tern of tokens, or symbols, which they not only used in their 
divinations, by lot, but applied, also, to the purpose of com- 
municating ideas, and thoughts. That system appears to 
have been formed upon the following principle. 

Discriminative charactei's, or properties, had been ob-r 
served in particular species of trees, and plants. These were 
not of a kind, which demanded the eye of aa expert na- 



247 

turalist, alone^ lo discover them ; but jvhich presented themt 
selves^ obviously,, to popular^ notice and remark : such as^ the 
expanding boughs^ and leaves, of the oaky — the length and 
uprightness of the j^r,-— the quivering motion of the aspen 
hafy — or the hoUozmiess of the reed. 

These obvious peculiarities^ had suggested, naturally 
enough, to a simple race, distinct, though general ideas, 
of the respective trees, or plants, and had given them a na- 
tural hint of comparison, between other objects, and those 
plants, whenever the same general idea should present 
itself. 

Thus, of a man, who possessed an expanded mind, it 
would be said, — in perfect agreement with language of poe- 
try, at this day, — " He is an oak ;" — of another, who was 
liable to be intimidated, was irresolute, and wavering, ^^ He 
is an aspen leaf;" — or, of a third, who was hollow, and de- 
ceitful, " He is a reed.'' 

Men, in progress of time, had proceeded so far, as to 
convey these general ideas, fi-om one place to another, by 
means of a leafy or sprigy of the characteristical tree, or 
by several of them, artificially combined. From such mde, 
and simple openings, evidently, arose that system of gene- 
ral si/mbolsy which had been retained by our Druidsy and 
which, at last, grew into a science of such importance, 
and of such comprehension, that our Bards of Druidism, 
vaunted themselves, not a httle, upon their complete ac- 
quaintance with it, — emphatically denominating the appli- 
cation of its principles, rhln, or run, the secret, or mystery. 

This, profound, secret, they guarded, from the knowledge 
of the vulgar, with peculiar jealousy, and circumspection : 



248 

the information, therefore, which they have left us, upon 
the subject, — though it ascertains the fact, that, unquestion- 
ably, they possessed that system, — is not adequate, of itself, 
to the task, "of developing its practical application. 

Their notices consist, only, of such mysterious hints, as 
Druids might have communicated safely to their disciples, 
during the infant stages of their probation, and would re- 
quire a further explanation, after their admission. Thus, 
magnificently, Taliesin speaks of his attainments, in this 
deep science — 

Myvi yw Taliesin, 
Ben Beirdd y Gorllewin: 
Mi adwaen bob corsin, 
Yngogov Gorddewin. 

W.Jrch. V. i. P.34 

*"' I am Taliesin, 

Chief of the Bards of the west ;~— 
I am acquainted with every sprig, 
In the cave of the Arch-diviner," 

In another poem, entitled Angar Cyvyndawd, (Con- 
cdrdia discors} he makes a further boast of his very superior 
knowledge-^ 

Gogwn — Pwy amgyfrawd gwydd, 
O aches ammodydd: 
Gogwn da a drwg. 

Ibid P. 36. 



249 

<^ I know the intent of the trees. 

In the memorial * of compacts : 

I know good and evil." 



And again- 



Atwyn yd rannawd, 
Gwawd neu mevl, gogyfrawd_, 
Aches gwydd Gwyddion — • 
Gogwn i 'nevawd. 

^' I know which was decreed. 
Praise, or disgrace, by the intention 
Of the memorial of the trees of the Sages — 
I understand my institute." 

Notwithstanding this occasional boast, of superior know- 
ledge, it may be collected from the following quotations, 
how little the Bards were disposed, or public spirited 
enough, to make strangers as wise as themselves. They are 
taken from the Gorzoynion, or Elucidators, a piece as- 
cribed to Llywarch Hen, who lived, as I have already ob- 
served, in the sixth century. 

This piece contains about one hundred lines, in such 
triplets, as we ascribe to the ages of Druidism, and it con- 
sists of hints, respecting the information, conveyed by the 
leaves, and sprigs, of certain trees, and plants. The sub- 
ject is confined here, to the use of those leaves, and sprigs, 



• This sense of Aches is become obsolete in Welsh ; the Cornish retains it, 
la the plural form.— ilc/ieson. Memorials, Jiucriptions. 
Pylat vynnus screfe a. vewnas Crest acheson. 
** Fllutt would write inscriptions of the life of Christ." Dr. Pnjce's Diet. 



250 

as lots J or as tokens : and the language has been so guarded,, 
that, sometimes, the intended plant is only intimated, 
by an ambiguous periphrasis; thus, in the ls56th triplet — 

Gorwyn blaen brwyn-brigawg wydd. 
Pan dyner dan obenydd — 
Meddwl serchog syberw vydd.* 

'*■ The top of the rush-sprigg'd tree, [the birch] declare?^ 

When drawn under the pillow — 

The mind of the affectionate zcill be liberal" 

10th triplet. 

Gorwyn blaen derw, chwerw brig on, 
Chweg evwr — ^' Chwerthiniad ton; 
Ni chel grudd custudd calon." 

*^ The top of the oak, the bitter sprig of the ash. 
And the sweet brakeweed declare— a broken laugh. 
The cheek will not conceal the anguish of the heart J' 

£2d triplet. 

Gorwyn blaen Celli, gogyhyd yswydd, 
Adail derw, dygaydyddf — 
A wel a g^r gwyn ei vyd. 

*^ The top of hazels— privet of equal lengthy 
Tied up with oak leaves, declare — 
Happy is he who sees whom he loves,'' 



* W. Arch. V. i. P. 122. 

t Dpgifdimv, to connect, ©r tie up together. 



251 

The other triplets proceed in the same character — 

The Bard is labouring, continually^ to guard the main 
secret, agreeably to the injunction delivered, in the follow- 
ing mystical triplets, upon the same topic, and which have 
been regarded, as the oldest remains of the Welsh language^ 
and as genuine relics of Druidical ages. 

Marchwiail bedw briglas 
A dyn vy nhroed o wanas; 
Nag addev rin i was. 

Marchwiail derw mTvynllwyn 
A dyn vy nhroed o gadwyn — 
Nag addev rin i vorwyn. 

Marchwiail dervv deilar 

A dyn vy nhroed o garchar — 

Nag addev rin i lavar. 

" The shoots of the green-topped birch 
Will draw my foot out o-f a snare : 
peveal not the secret to a youth. 

The shoots of the kindly oak 
Will draw my foot out of a chain : 
Reveal not the secret to a maid. 

The shoots of the leafy oak 

Will draw my foot out of prison — 

Trust not the secret to thy voice." 

The above quotations may suffice to shew, that those 
Bards, who professed themselves the disciples of Druids, 



252 



assumed theif knowledge in a systematical ai'tj of collectings 
and communicating, certain ideas of things, and of their 
several relations, by the leaves, and sprigs j of particular 
trees, or plants; and considered the perfect knowledge of 
this art, as a valuable accomplishment. 

To these authorities, I may add, that the Welsh, a people, 
proverbially tenacious of their ancient customs, and of their 
traditions, have, to this day, preserved the vestiges of that 
system, though, it appears, they have quite forgotten the 
elements, or principles, upon which it was founded. 

Mr, Owen, in his Dictionary/, of the IVelsh languagey 
records the following fact, under the word, Bedzc. — '^ The 
birch was an emblem of readiness, or complacency,, in 
doing a kind act. If a young woman accepted of the ad- 
dresses of a lover, she gave him the birchen branch, mostly 
formed into a crown j but if he was rejected, she gave him 
a collen, or hazelT 

And again, under Coll, — '^ There is an old custom, of 
presenting a forsaken lover with a stick, or tncig of hazel, 
probably, in allusion to the double meaning of the word, — ■ 
loss, and the hazel'' 

I am induced, by «ome hints, v.hich occur in the old 
Bards, to conjecture, that, in those cases, where the use 
of common letters was prohibited, the. ingenious Dniids, 
having duly arranged their symbolical sprigs, knotted them 
up in strings, like those of tlie ancient Chinese, or the fa- 
mous quipos, of the Feriivians, 

UpoKi one of these ancient symbol?, T^/iesfw says— 



25 



Q 



Gwerii;, blaen Uin, 
A wnaent gyssevin — 

^^ The alders, at the end of the line, 
Began the arrangement." 

In the Gorwi/nion, quoted above^ we find^ — ^^ The tops 
of the hazel, and the privet, of equal lengthy tied up with 
oak leaves " And in Buarth Beirdd, or the Circle of the 
J3ards, the following remarkable passage occurs— 

"\^^yv llogell cerdd, wyv lleenydd : 
Carav y gorwydd a gorail clyd^ 
A bardd a bryd, ni phryn ired. 
Kyt ev carav amrysoniad: 
A geibl celvydd ni meuedd medd. 
Madws myned i'r ymddiod, 
A chelvyddeid^ am gelvyddyd, 
A ckanclwmj cystwm Cywlad.^ 

'* I am the depository of song ; I am a man of letters : 
I love the sprigs, with their woven-tops secured. 
And the Bard who composes, with out purchasing his liquor 
I love not him_, — the framer of strife : 
He that reproaches the skilful,, possesses no mead. 
It is time to go to the banquet. 
With the artists employed about their mystery. 
With a HUNDRED KNOTS, after the manner of our cotm" 
iri/men/'—or '' Of the Celta." 



• Tr. Jrch. V. i. p. 27. 



254 



Sect. V. On the formation of an Alphabet, upon the- 
principle of general Symbols, 

X HAT such a system of syrnbols, conveyed, in its ori- 
ginal state, and primitive application, the ideas of things, 
and their several relations, has heen shewn ; but it has 
not yet appeared, how it was connected with definite 
words, or with elementary sounds. Thus, by a leaf or 
sp7'ig of the oak, Druids, in the act of divination, may 
have collected, and communicated, (amongst others of the 
order,) an image of spreading, expansio7i, or unfolding: 
sprigs, or leaves of the asp, might present the image of 
removing, wavering, fluttering, or inconstancy ; but sym- 
bols like these, in the light we have hitherto contemplated 
them, may have had no affinities with one, more than 
another, of the synonymous terms, and may have had no 
relation to the elementary sounds of any term whatsoever. 
Thus far, then, a system of language by symbols, may have 
been totally different, in its nature, from alphabetical 
writing. It may have been purely^JiieroglyphicaL But the 
art, as'it may be ascertained, by the evidence of the same 
authors, did not rest here. 

The system, considered as Druidical, had attained such 
a degree of perfection, that the same hieroglyphical 
sprigs, were become the symbols of sounds, as well as of 
thi?igs, or of their several relations ; — and that even deline- 
ations of them had been constituted into , a regular al- 
phabet. 



255 

This task^ of improving, and of maturing a series of 
general tokens, into dcmei\,tary letters, seems to have been 
an effort of invention, so far surpassing the degree of 
aciimaiy ascribed usually to a rude, and primitive i;ace, 
that few, perhaps, will agree to its truth, upon any argu- 
ments, that fall short of demonstration. It might, perhaps, 
then, be more desirable, to rest the cause, upon evidence 
of the y<2c^, than to adduce reasons for its 'prohahiliti/. 

The following observations, however, may serve t© shew, 
that, at an early period of society, and amongst a people, 
who spoke a language, resembling the (radical) Celtic ; 
such an invention would have been more natural, and more 
obvious, than it could be, in the modern state of cultivated 
nations. 

Though the system of the Druidical symbols, as far as 
we have hitherto traced it, had no visible dependence on 
particular words ; yet, its general connection with language, 
was obvious, and was necessary. 

Let it be supposed, for instance, that a Druid had con- 
sulted his lots of magic, or had received intelligence, by 
means of the symbols, or tokens, respecting the intention 
of a General. Let it be demanded of him, what informa- 
tion he had collected, upon such an occasion, and he 
would naturally answer, in the terms of his language, 
cither by repeating the names of the lots, or symbols in 
due order ; as, the asp, the fir, the furze, the yezv, and 
quicken tree ; or else, by reciting the characteristical ideas, 
under which these emblems were generally viewed; as, 
*' He-— proceeds—out of-^his place," Tlius it is, that sym^ 



256 

hph, like these branches of sprigs, may represent words, as 
well as ideas. 

But, as most languages have many synonymous terms, 
consisting of ele7naitary sounds_, very different from each 
other ; and, as the generality of the words are formed by 
combinations of several elementary sounds, it will be 
replied, that spnhols, like these, could not have represented 
the simjjle elements of speech, in a manner so distinct, as 
to constitute the rudiments of an alphabet. 

The main force of this objection may, however, be a 
little broken, by a retrospect into those properties of the 
Celtic language, which are mentioned in Sect, III. and 
which, perhaps, characterized the original state of language 
in general. 

The radicals of this language are of the simplest nature 
imaginable. They consist either of single vowels, or of 
single consonants, connected with a vocal power. 

Before the birth of compounds, and of derivatives, the 
Tocabulaiy of such a language, must, of course, have 
been circumscribed, within the narrowest limits, and, per- 
haps, it comprised no terms, that were properly synony- 
mous. Whenever the mind, therefore, discriminated an 
idea, the term, by which it was to be expressed, was limited 
and certain. 

The Celtfc regarded each of their elementary sounds, arti- 
culate, or vocal, as having a natural affinity, or correspon- 
dence, to some general image, or perception : and it was 
their opinion, that the name of the respective ideas could 



^o7 • 

be so properly expressed by other sounds: Hence, the coti- 
iinual effort of their Bards, to cherish, and perpetuate, the 
characteristical sounds, in their descriptions of strength, 
tveakness, velocity, slowness, weight, smoothness, hvity, as* 
perity, S^c. which tlie laws of their metre sometimes ren- 
dered ^ very ardiious task. 

Of the extreme simplicity, which characterised the pfi* 
mitive Ceitic, I may dffer an example, in the message 
which I have supposed^--^ 

'* He proceeds, out of his place;" '^ E a 6 i le" 

Let us only imagine, that, a language of the people 
whoever they were, by whom the system of general sym- 
bols was first improved into alphabetical writing, retained 
these, or the like properties, and then, we shall bring this 
most curious invention^ within reach of human abilities; 

If the descriptive term, and the idea described, had a na- 
tural connexion, between each other, and, were mutually 
suggested, the symbol of the one, would, of course, become 
the symbol of the other. 

if primitive terms were so simple, as to consist of ele- 
mentary sounds, the symbols of those terms, would, at the 
Same time, have typified the simple elements of language : 
and, consequently, the invention of hieroglyphics, or, of 
letters, whilst men spoke one simple language, must have 
teen one, and the same thing. 

Leaving this topic at present, and at the mercy of critic 
cism, I shall proceed, and give Taliesin's testimony, as to 
the fact^ Be it still remembered, however, that we must 



258 

not expect^ here^ ^^ testimony, delivered in the language of 
an hi^orian. The doctrine is taught by hirrij who is afraid 
of exposii^g his aweful mysteries, to the eyes of the vulgar, 
and profan€w 

Amongst the remaining works of this Bard, there is an 
allegorical poem, of near two hundred and fifty lines, en- 
titled. Cad Goddeu, the battle of the trees,-— ov, of inten- 
tions, designs, or, devices, — for the idiom of the language 
will bear either construction. The author begins, in his 
usual, (that is, in his mystic) strain, with a relation, as it 
should seem, at first view, of his own transmigrations, or of 
the various forms which he successively assumed. But the 
entire poem is an allegory : and from the general design, 
it may be collected, that, by these changes, the Bard 
means to delineate the ripening progress of art, science, or 
invention, and the successive subjects of investigation. We 
may, therefore, consider him, as personifying science, or 
the inventive, and contemplative principle, when he says* — 

Bum yn lliaws rhith- 
Cyn bum dyscyvrith, &c. 

'' I was in a multitude of shapes^ 
Before I assumed a consistent form.-' 

Having enumerated about sixteen of these forms, he 
says, in the twenty-third line. 

Bum Gwydd yngwarthan. 

'' At last, I became trees/' — or — ^' A sageJ^ 

* W. Arelu V. k P. Se. 



'%B9 

The word gwtfdd, when plural> signifiefs frees; if singu- 
lar, a sage, ox philosopher. 

From this passage, it becomes the main business of the 
{)oem, though interspersed with mysterious hints, to describe 
the allegory of arming the symbolical trees, ox plants, and 
bringing them out, in order of battle. The device is not 
without sublimity, though of rather a wild and singular cast; — 
but this poem is not the only piece, which touches upon 
the subject. 

There is an iaenigmatical account, of the same battle, in 
the first volume of the^'cM Archaeology, P. 16?^ to which 
I refer the Reader for the original: the following is a 
literal translation, 

'' The history of the battle of the frees."— 

^^ These ate the vetsicles which were sung, at the battle 
X)f the trees, or, as Others call it, the battle of Achren, [L 
Crann, a tree; whence, cranchar, a /of> or token, i. e. a 
tender tree, or sprig J\ It happened, on account of a white 
toebuck, and a whelp, which came from the lower region, 
and were taken by Amathaon,'' [from Math, kind, species, 
and honi, to discriminate,^ '' the son of Don/' [geniusJ] 
*^ For this reason, Amathaon, the son of Don, engaged 
With Arazmi," [eloquence, the faculty of speech,} '' king of 
the lower region;*' 

"' And there was a man, iii the battle, who could not be 
conquered, till his name was known: and, on the other 
side, there was a woman, called Achren, [a tree,] whose 
party could not be overcome, till her name was discovered. 

AS 



260 

Atd Gwiddion, [the philosopher , another name of Ama^ 
thaon,} the son of Don, devised the name of the man, and 
sung these two versicles/* 

" Surefooted is my steed, before the spur, — 

Thou, with the head of Olgen, save thyself by speedy flight. 

Bran, is thy name^ thou with the fair locks." 

*^ Surefooted is thy steed, in the day of battle. 
Conspicuous is the alder-top in thy hand, 

bran, its cracked bud and sprig are found on thee l" 

^* And the good Amathaon conquered." 

Olgen, Olgwen, or, Olwen, is the Venus of Britom : Bran 
signifies, an omen, or tokeyi — • 

1 shall now quote, and then translate, some of Taliesin's 
lines, upon this topic-^ 

Nid mi \^yv ni gan 
Ceint, er yn vychan> 
Ceint ynghad Godeu brig'^ 
^hag Prydein Wledig. 
Uweint veirch canholig 
Llynghesoedd meuedig; 
Gweint mil mawren, 
Arnaw yd oedd can pen^ 
A chad erddygnawd^ 
Dan von y tavawd; 
A chad arall y sydd, 
Yn ei wegilydd. 

** I am not he who cannot sing 



261 

Of the conflicty small though I be. 
The conflict-, in the engagement of the sprigs of trees, 
Before the ruler of Britaiiu 
The central steeds moved 
The freighted fleets — 
There moved a bold-spirited creature : 
Bearing a hundred heads. 
And a battle was contested. 
Under the root of his tongues: 
- And another conflict there is, 
In the recesses of his heads'* 

I know not what to make of the central steeds, and 
freighted fleets; but, by the wonderful creature, with a 
hundred heads, I think it probable, that our British my- 
thologist, would mean to illustrate, or typify, the human 
race, divided into a multitude of its various families: the 
topography of battle, in the organs of speech, and in the 
sent of the understanding, clearly points out the nature of 
his allegory. 

The Bard now begins a description of this monster, which 
might remind us of the Ti/phon of the ancients, but the 
passage is evidently mutilated. — 

Llyfan du gavlaw. 
Cant ewin arnaw — 
Neidr vraith gribawg. 

'^ A black grasping toad,' 
Armed with a hundred claws— 
A spotted and crested snake." 

Are not these the sordid, and the violent passions of 



262 

mankind^ which obstruct the attainments, and progress, of 
science ? They are^ I think, resolved by some interpolator^ 
into the sinsy zvhich occasion our punishment in the fiesh. 

But, immediately, Taliesitiy resumes his Druidism, an4 
proceeds with his allegory.-— 

Bum ynghaer vevenydd (L, Vdeni^dd) 

Yt gryssynt wellt a gwydd: 

Cenynt gerddorion^ 

Erysynt cadvaon: 

Padwyrain i vrython, 

A oreu Gwyddion, 

Gelwysid ar neivon, 

Hyd pan gwarettau, 

1^ rhen rwy digonsai: 

As attebwy dovydd — 

Trwy iaith ag ^Ivydd — : 

Rhithwch rieddawg wyd(J^ 

Gantaw yn Huydd: 

A rhwystraw peblig 

Csid, ar Haw annevig. 

f* I was in the city of Pevenyddf 

Whither the reeds, and trees, hastened. 

The masters of song will celebrate 

The wonders of the combatants. 

A re-exaltation Xo the mixt race 

Did the sages accomplish. 

They invoked the dweller of heaven. 

Till he, the supreme Ruler, 

Should succour those who had satisfied him. 

The grfgat Regulator gave for answer — 



263 

Througiiout language, and its elements, 

Delineate the commanding trees, 

In the capacity of warriors. 

And restrain the confusion 

Of battle, in the hand qf the inexpert." 

Here, the Bard, unequivocally declares, the general 
nature of his great, and profound secret. The symbolical 
trees, or sprigs, were delineated, through laiiguage, and 
through its elements. He regards this device, as being so 
important in its use, that it pr9ved a re-exaltation to 
the mixed race ; and so ingeniqu^ in its contrivance, 
that it could be ascribed, by him, to nothing less than 2k 
communication of the Supreme Being, in answer to the 
direct prayer of the sages. To this he subjgins ; 

Pan swynwyd* godau, 

Yg goheith -f- an goddaU;^ 

Dygyttoroynt godeu, 

O bedryddant danau — >• 

Cwyddynt amaerau. ^ 

When the sprigs were marked. 

In the plane (or tablet) of devices. 

The sprigs uttered their voice. 

From the frame of distinct sounds-^ "^ 

Then ceased the doubtful eonflict. 



* Swyn, perhaps from Syw, Magus, 9, sacred, mysterious, or magical 
character; a. talisman, Swynaw, to delineate such characters; to preserve, or 
restore, by their means, to charm. The words have an apparent affinity -with 

t Go— bait/i, dim. of paifft, a •plants 



264 

The Bard proceeds to describe the expedient of arming 
fhese trees, or plants, to the number of twenty-four or 
five ; to discriminate between their several dispositions^ and 
the various talents they exerted ; to inform us, that some of 
them came forward voluntarily, and joined the battle, when 
others were armed with difficulty, and after a long interval. 
In this part of the piece, the metaphors are sometimes 
broken, so as to admit a few rays of light, between the 
chinks. The Bard is, a|; one moment, gravely engaged in 
arming his trees; the next, he touches upon the subject, as 
a magical device,— a, system of symhols, an invention of 
Gxcyddion, or the Sages; and he occasionally hints^ 
that this invention, or device^ was of the highest anti« 
quity, 

A'm swynwys sywydd 
Sywyddon, cyn byd, 

ff I was marked by the Sage 

Of Sages, in the primitive world .'^ 

Y^^ have, afterwards, some account of the armies of th^s^ 
vegetable leaders, 

Pedwar ngein cant 
A gweint, ar eu chwant : 
Nid yn^ hyn, nid ynt iau 
No ml, yn eu banau- 

"^ Tour-score hundred 
Arranged themselves, at their pleasure : 
They are neither older nor younger 
Than myself, in their articulations/*^ 



^65 

That these eight thousand are to be understood, as 
a definite^ for the indefinite number of the wppds, in 
the language of the Sages, is rendered probable, by 
the yenaark, \vhicl> the Bard makes, in the person 
of Science^ concerning the equality of their age, and 
still more so, by what he adds, upon the device in. 
general. 

Ev gwrith, ev dadwrith^ 
Ev gwrith ieithoedd. 

^^ ft willfornij it will decompose^ 
It will form languages." 

What I have^selected, from this curious allegory, may 
suffice to shew, that symbolical sprigs, of Driiidism, 
were actually delineated, in a certain form, and were der> 
finitely arranged, in a certain order, to represent thej^Vsf^ 
principles pf language, or to constitute an alphabet. The 
fact will appear, still more clearly, from hints, which the 
same Taliesin gives elsewhere. Thus, in a poem, to the 
sons of Llyr ;— 

Bum ynghad goddeu^ gfin leu a Gwyddion, 
Wy a rithwys gwydd elvydd ag elestron*. 

'' I was in the battle of devices, with the learned, and the. 

Sages, 
Who delineated the elementary trees, and reed&J' 



• W. Arch. V. i. P. 67. 



^66 

The word lieu, which is here used as a namcy signifies, 
to ready or explain. 

Again, in a poem, entitled, Prw gymrch Taliesiuj or 
f he first Greeting of Taliesin : — 

Neu vlaen gwydd falsurn, 
Py estung mor grum, 
Neu pet anatlon 
Yssid yn eu bon — 
Neu leu a Gwyddion, 
A vuant gelvyddon, 
Neu a roddant lyvron*. 

'* Or the points of the counterfeited trees^ 

What is it they zvhisper so forcibly ; 

Or zvhat various breathings 

Are in their trunks ? 

These are bead by the Sages 

Who were versed in science. 

Or zvhq delivered books." 

I need not multiply quotations, which all make to the 
same point. The passages I have already adduced, may 
be deemed sufficient, I should hope, to explain the senti- 
ments of the oldest British Bards^ now extant, upon this 
topic ; namely, that our Druids possessed a kind of al- 
phabet, which, according to their tradition, and their 
doctrine, teas formed upon the system of their sym- 
bolical sprigs, or hieroglyphics, cut, or delineated, in 
simple figures, and adapted, so as to represent the firsf 



♦ W. Arch, P. 32. 



g67 

principles^ or the elementary sounds, of their language. 
And this tradition did not become obsolete^ immediately 
after the age of those Bards : fox we find the word gwydd, 
or trees, used^ long after their time, as a term appropriated 
fox letters, and zmiting* 

Thus, Gwilym Ddu, as late as the year^ 146O. 

Llawer arver a orvydd 

Llun ei gorph, wrth ddarllein Gwydd, 

f^ Many an attitude undergoes 

The form of his body, in reading the trees!* 

Before I close this section, I would just observe, that 
the Bards, uniformly ascribe that system of symbols, 
(whether considered as hieroglyphics,— as magic lots, or 
means of divination, — or as letters,) to the invention of 
the Sages, or Seers, — Gzvyddion, 

The term Gwyd, is equivalent, nearly, to that of Bardd, 
one that makes conspicuous, or manifest; priest, — philo- 
sopher, — teacher. 

The -appropriation of this teirm, to denote a man of 
science, is oi' high antiquity, in the language of Britons ; 
their Derwydd, or Druid, as it appears to me, being one 
.of its derivatives. 

The word is not confined, however, to the Sages of 
Britain, for Taliesin says, in a poem, entitled, Hanei 
Taliesin ; — 



^68 

Ml 9. viim yn y Lfysdon, 
Cyn geni Gwi/ddion. 

■' I was in Lusitania, 

before the birth of the Sacres^ 



269 



Sect. VI. Of the Druidical Letters, 



w, 



E have hitherto traced only the general principle^ 
upon which the symbols of Druidism were constructed^ and 
the application of that principle^ to the formation of an 
alphabet. We have seen, however, nothing, as yet, of the 
number, the powers, or the characters, of their letters ; 
nor discriminated the individual kind of sprig, or symbol, 
by which either of the elementary sounds was represented. 

These particulars are as open to investigation, as 
those, which have been just explained ; but our intelligence 
respecting them, must be obtained from different sources. 

In the allegorical poem, quoted above, Taliesin has, in- 
deed, given us curious hints, upon this topic. At pre- 
sent, I shall defer enlarging upon them, as they are not 
clear enough to elucidate the whole plan. 

Druidical teacher?, of the sixth century, guarded their 
secret with too much caution, to divulge their whole mys- 
teries in the ears of the uninitiated. But this great arcanum, 
as far as relates to that subject, has been laid open by their 
successors, and by their neighbours. As the mysterious doc- 
trines of Druidism, were held, by degrees, in less idola- 
trous veneration, the disclosure of their secrets began, by 
the same degrees, to be regarded as less profane : and there 
was an order of men still, who could have imparted much 
information respecting them. 



270 

The public kavc repeatedly been tpld, that the Druidkal 
Bards left a regular chain of successors, in the Welsh 
mountains. These, are not, even still, entirely extinct. 
They even profess to have preserved the system of Bardism^ 
or DruidUnij entire, to this day. (See Owens Introd. t6 
JLi, Hen, Ed* Williams's Lyric Poemsi Fry's Pantog* 
P. 305, 306.) 

It will be recollected, that, by the term> Bards, the 
Welsh do not understand merely poets ; but persons regularly 
instructed in the institutes, and mysteries^ of the original an(i 
primitive Britons, 

Respecting the complete preservation of this Druidlcal 
system, by the Bards, at this day, I neither affirm, nor 
deny any thing. I think it, however, a certain fact, that 
by them are preserved many relics, of high antiquity, andj 
most probably, of the Druidical ages, Amongst other 
curious notices, they have received, and communicated, a 
series of letters, which they distinguish by the name of 
Coelbreti y Beirdd, the billet of signs, of the Bards, or 
the Bardic alphabet. (Fry's Pantog. P. 305.) 

The word Coelbren, literally implies, the stick of omeft) 
the token stick. In its plural^ it is Coelbreni, lots, o* 
letterSi 

Under the w6rd Coelbrev, Mr. Owen, in his Welsk 
Dictionary, thus delineates of the above-mentioned alphabets 
" This was the original alphabet of the Britons, which was 
cut across the surface of a square piece of wood, being their 
way of writing ; which is still preserved by a few of the 
descendants of the Bards.'' Aud again, in his Introduction 
to LI. Hen, P. xL '' Their (tlie Bards') original alphabet 



271 

is still extant^ which may be considered, as a very great 
curiosity. It contains thirty-six letters, sixteen of which, 
are radical, and the rest, mutations of these." 

*' It is singular, that the bar die alphabet should contain^ 
all the Etruscan letters, \dthout the least deviation of form^ 
except four or five of the latter, that are RomanJ* 

It must be observed, that, for the purpose of convey- 
ing an idea, of some inflective sounds, in the Welsh 
language, these Bards made use of twenty- four muta- 
tions, or secondary characters; so that the w^hole series 
amounts to forty. But still, the number of the radi- 
cal letters, is unvaried, and the same principle is pre- 
served throughout, in forming the secondary powers, or 
inflections. 

In Fry's Pantographia, P. 307^ we have the following 
account of the manner of using these characters, accom- 
panied with a most curious, engraved^ specimen. ^' The ori- 
ginal manner of writing, amongst the ancient Britons, was, 
by cutting the letters, with a knife, upon sticks, which 
were, most commonly, squared, and sometimes formed into 
three sides: consequently, a single stick, contained either 
four, ox three lines. (See Ezek. xxxvii. iG.) The squares 
were used for general subjects, and for stanzas, of four lines 
in poetry: the trilateral ones were adapted to triadts, and 
engli/n milzcyr, or the triplet, and the warrior's terse. Se- 
veral sticks, with writing upon them, were put together, 
forming a kind of frame, which was called Peithynen, or 
Elucidator" — Peithynen imports any tablet, or small body, 
with a fiat surface, more especially a brick, which, ancient 
authors inform us, was the material used, by the old Baby- 
lonians, for the record, of their facts. 



2/2 



Mr, Owen saysj further, in a waste leaf, prefixed to the 
second part of his Dictionary : '^ Each [of the Bardie 
letter s'l haxl anciently a simple, appropriate^ character, and 
name, having so much resemblance, in form, to those of 
the Same class, as the analogy of sound pointed out th'eir 
degree of affinity," 

The annexed plate contains a copy of this alphabet, in 
its due order, with the power of each letter, and the names 
of the radicals, as I was favoured with them, by the ingeni- 
ous antiquary last mentioned. 

Such are the omen sticks, tohem, lots, or letters, of the 
Bards. Let us only recollect the source, and the origin, of 
these characters, as before developed: that they were/ in 
truth, only delineations of the symbolical sprigs, or Dru^ 
idical tokens, the tops of certain trees, and plants ; — I 
think, it will be acknowledged, that even their counfensmce 
carries the lines of honestyy and marks their genuine 
descents 

Each of the radicals (except n perhaps) is the obvi- 
ous representation of a cutting of some sprig, and each 
of the derivatives is regularly formed, from its appropriate 
radical, by the addition of a bud, or shoot, or the junction 
of a piece of reed^ 

And, in this coincidence of the characters with mtj con-^. 
ception of the Bardic symbols, there certainly was no 
collusion ; I had written up the tvvu preceding sections, before 
I knew that such characters existed. When I communiw 
cated the substance of those two sectiot>s, to some friends, 
in 1798, 1 found that my ideas were new, to the best-^ 
informed Welshman, They had not minutely investigated 



1' Late I.Page zjz. 







L^^^i^^.^. 




AANl^mYO^VV 

a a- e e i muj/ cr a ^^ -c^r 







(9 



/^ 



o 



.9. 

A- 



// /£ /J // Xf /^' 



27S 

thfe extent^ and various application of symLols^ described 
by Taliesin, and by other ancient Bards, 

When I maintained, that the Celled certainly possessed 
an alphabet, formed of a series of symbolical sprigs, I 
was told, that an original British alphabet, still preserved, 
would invalidate my opinion. This alphabet, 1 was ex- 
tremely desirous to see. My satisfaction was equal t6 
my siirprise, when Mr. Ozoen presented me with a com- 
plete copy of it, and when I contemplated the magical 
sprigs of the Druids, which I had rather zvished, than en- 
couraged the hope, to discover. 

Ftom what I have just observed, it must be evident, that 
the name of the particular tree, from which each of these 
characters was formed, is not likely to be obtained, from 
the mere tradition of the modern Welsh Bards, 

Those names, by which the radical consonants are dis- 
tinguished, in this alphabet, are only the simple ex- 
pressions of those marked, and specific ideas, which their 
emblematical parents^ the sprigs, were supposed, severally, 
to typify. But all these diminutive names are neither more 
lior less, than radical words in the Celtic language, convey- 
ing distinct and clear meanings. They are those nuclei, 
round which the Celtic prefixes, preposition-s, or tenni- 
nations, entwine themselves, in the formation of the 
longest compounds. And this proves, more fully, than by 
chains of abstract argument, the obvious practicability of 
devising such an alphabet, for a language, that arose out of 
jsuch very simple elements, and principles. 

It has etlready been remarked, that there were two obvi- 

s 



" 274 . 

ous metliods of connecting Druidical s^mhoh with lan^ 
guage, or of reducing the information, which they con- 
veyed, into words, and sentences. 

The first was, by repeating the names of the symbols 
themselves, in due order; — and the second, by expressing 
only those characteristical ideas, under which they were 
severally viewed. Consequently, tiiere must have been two 
sets of names of Druidical lots, or letters, equally ob- 
vious : the names of the trees, or sprigs, and the expressions 
of the intended ideas. 

Of the latter, we have a complete list, in the Bardic 
alphabet. To obtain a knowledge of the former, we must 
have recourse to a distinct branch of the old Celta, whose 
language, and learning, have pursued a course, totally, 
independent of the Celt a in South Britain, for a period, 
beyond the reach of history, and, cei^tainly, as far back, 
as from the ages of Druidism» 

The antiquaries of Ireland, claim an alphabet of their 
own, whicli, in all its essential points, agrees to that pf 
the Bards, in Britain, 

1 . It was Druidical, 

^, It was a magical alphabet, and used by those Druids^ 
in their divinatiotis, and their decisions by lot. 

3.. It consisted of the same, radical, sixteen letters, which 
formed the basis of the Druidical alphabet in Britain, 

4. Each of these letters received its name; from some tree, 



275 

0r plant, of a certain Species, regarded as being in some 
view^ or otlier,^ descriptive of its power : and these names 
are still retained. 

So faf^ the doctrine of British Druids is exactly re- 
cognisedj in the Western Island. The same^ identical, 
system, is completely ascertained, and preserved. 

Yet, there are material circumstances, which point out a 
very ancient, and remote period, for the separation of these 
alphabets from each other. The tvvo series of characters 
retain little, or no vestige of similarity : and the hnsh, 
besides their cyphers, or secret alphabets, have three sets 
of characters, the most modern of which are, nearly the 
same as those on the grave-stone of Cadvan, prince of 
North Wales, who died about the year 6l6. Their order is 
also totally^ different. The Irish alphabet, begins with 
B, L, Ny the radical consonant^ of Belin, the Jpollo of 
the Celta. 

Roderick 0*Fiaherij/, a learned Irish antiquary, of the 
seventeenth century, has collected, from some of the oldest 
monuments of literature in his country, the ancient names 
of the Irish letters, together with an exact register of the 
several trees, and plants, from which they were deno- 
minated. 

These curious particulars, he has recorded in his Ogygia, 
site rerum Hihcrnicarum Chronologia : and from this 
author, Ed. Llxcyd transcribes them, in their proper places, 
f n his Dictionary of the Irish language. 

Mr, Ledzi^ich, in hi« Antiquities of Ireland {^io, Dublin, 

s 2 



276 

1790,) describes three sets of characters, and as formin* 
three distinct alphabets. 

The first, and most ancient, is said to be named Bobeloth, 
from certain masters, who assisted in forming the Japhetian 
language ; but Mj\ Ledwich thinks, it is obviously deno- 
minated from Bohdy Loth, its two first letters, P. 98. 

I rather conjecture, it has its title from Bobo, or Bobe, 
mysterious, and lot, — a lot — a cutting. 

The second, an imperfect series, is called, Marcomannic 
Runes, and described as having agreed with the Runic, 
both in the shape, and the name. P. 97- 

The third, which is said to be, (no doubt,) the remains of 
an old magical alphabet, is called, Bethhdsnion na ogma, 
or the alphabet of magical or mysterious letters, the first 
three of wliich are, Beth, Luis, Nion, whence it is named. 
P. 99. 

The following is the alphabet of Lish radicals, in their 
oi-der, together with its names, and symbols^ in O' Flaherty. 





c 


!ONSONANTS» 


Fowers. 


Names, 


Symbols. 


B 


Beith 


The Birch 


L 


Luis 


The Quicken-tree 


N 


Nion 


The Ash 


F 


Fearn 


The Alder 


S 


Sail 


The Willow 


H 


Uath 


Tlie Hawthorn 


D 


Duir 


The Oak 


T 


Tinne 





277 



Powers, 

c 

M 
G 
P 
R 



A 
O 
U 
E 
I 



Names* 


Symbols. 


Coll 


The Hazel 


Muin 


The Vine 


Gort 


The Ivy 


Pethboc 




Ruis 


The Elder-tree 


VOWELS. 




Ailm 


The Fir 


Onn 


Furze 


Ur 


Heath 


Eadha 


The Asp 


Idho 


The Yew-tree 



Let us connect these with Bardic radicals, and they 
will stand as follows^ when reduced into the order of the 
Jtoman letters* ^ 



Po 



owers. 


British Names, 


Irish Names, and Sj^mbolical Trees* 


A 


A 


Ailm 


The Fir 


B 


Bi 


Berth 


The Birch 


C 


Ci 


Coll 


The Hazel 


D 


Di 


Duir 


The Oak 


E 


E 


Eadha 


The Asp 


F 


Fi 


Fearn 


The Alder 


G 


Gi 


Gort 


The Ivy 


I 


I 


Idho 


The Yew 


L 


Li 


Luis 


The Quicken-tree 


M 


Mi 


Muin 


The Vine 


N 


Ni 


Nion 


The Ash 


O 


O 


Onn 


The Furze 


P 


Pi 


Pethboc 




R 


Ri 


Ruls 


The Elder 



Q78 

FowerSt British Kama. Irish Names, and SymhoUcal Tresis 

S Si Sail The Willow 

T Ti Tinne 

(U U) Ur The Heath 

Now, I think it will no longer be disputed,, that we per-. 
ceive this most curious, and striking system, in ^11 its parts^j 
proceeding, in due order, from its first, and rude, prin- 
ciples of sj/mbolical rods, or sprigs, to the complete for- 
mation of an alphabet, which nearly corresponds, in the 
number, and power, of its letters, to the oldest E^uropean 
alphabets. We thus discover, that the Celt(B of the 
British Islands, were not only acquainted with lettersj, 
but also derived the art of writing, from its remotest 
fountains, in a channel more clear and systematical, 
than could even be conceived by their polished neigh- 
bo]^s. 

In order to give my readers a more compendious view of 
their doctrine, upon this topic, I shall briefly recapitulate 
the substance of the evidence, adduced in the sections pre-, 
ceding, and of my reasoning upon it, 

1. Certain obvious, and characteristical, properties, and 
appearances, in particular kinds of ti'ces, and plants, were 
contemplated, by a simple, and primitive race. As these 
appearances presented themselves under distinct, though 
general ideas, they naturally suggested the hint of repre- 
senting, and communicating, such ideas, by means of the 
Zeai;es, or spngs, of the respective plants. Hence originated 
the custom of using emblematical rods, or sprigs. In 
the further progress of this custom, a definite number of 
plants, of the most common growth, was gradually select- 



279 

^, and agreed upon, for the purpose of transmitting general 
information^ with system^, and precision. 

2. The ideas of things, and of their several relations, 
being expressed, in the language of that people, by the 
simplest of all the terms that could be uttered, and the 
ideas of things, and of the terms, by which they are usually 
expressed, naturally connecting themselves in the mind, 
the symbols of things, obviously became the symbols 
of their names, or of the terms, by which the respective 
ideas were described. And of the pecuUar simplicity 
of the language, it would be a consequence, to find, that 
such, and the same symbols, would, of course, represent the 
simplest of their syllables, or elementary sounds. When 
several of these minute radicals were joined, so to form a 
sentence, or a compound word, which originally were the 
same thing, a constant practice of connecting the sym- 
bols of the several parts, and of arranging them, in their 
due order, must have obviously suggested itself, 

S. When sprigs of the several trees could not be readily 
obtained, for the conveyance of information, the most 
obvious expedient was, to delineate, upon smooth surfaces, 
and characteristical representations of the hi7i4s required, 
which could not be mistaken for those of another 
species, 

4. The peculiar convenience of this expedient soon ap- 
peared, and suggested a further hint, for making such re- 
presentations more commodious, and better adapted, amongst 
other of its uses, to dispatch, by fixing upon certain com- 
pendious drafts, so as by one of them to represent sprigs 
of the oak, by another, sprigs of the birch, &c. These 
drafts had still a genefal resemblance of sprigs ; and, though 



S80 • 

they no longer presented the obvious character of the 
several species, yet their value was readily appreciated^ 
throughout the society which had established them, and 
they became as current as the original sprigs themselves. 
if Druids after this art was known, continued the use of 
the natural symholsj it must have been for the purpose of 
secrecy, or a display of mystery, or from ^ superstitious 
veneration for the custom^ of antiquity. 

5. For perpetuating this important art, and in order 
to facilitate its communication, it was found necessary to 
arrange the characters in a certain order, and preserve their 
several names. The order might have been the mere sport of 
local fancy. The ^ames were, either simple expressions of the 
ideas, conveyed by the several characters, as in the Bardic 
alphabet of Britain ; or else, the names of the natural 
symbols, which the characters represented, as in the Beth-r 
luisnion, or alphabet of the ancient Irisji* 

It appears, from quotations, in former sections, that 
our Druids did retain the original, and primitive use of 
sprigs, for certain purposes, though versed in the nature 
of letters. These purposes, as I have already hinted, 
were, probably, communications amongst themselves, and 
pertaining to their interior doctrines, or discipline, which 
they deemed it unlawful to write ; — or connected with 
divination by lots. This last use of the sprigs, is inti- 
mated still in the terms, by which the Celtic dialects dis- 
tinguish their letters. 

Thus, in Irish, Feadha, frees, also letters, whence 
feadham, I relate, or rehearse : Cranchar, a lot, properly^, 
^ tender tree, or shoot, from crann, a tree, and car, 
Under, 



281 

Welsh — Gzvyddy trees, also letters. Cpelbreni^ letters^ 
lotSy — literally, omeriy or token sticks, 

Cornisfi — Fren, a tree, a sticky a lot ,•— 

'^ Because, by sticks, the Druids divined/' 

Borlase. 

Whilst these Druids regarded the several sticks, or sprigs, 
as complete symbols, in themselves, it would have been 
superfluous, to inscribe them with characters, which, at 
most, could only have been of synonymous import. 

It is probable, however, that sometimes the old Celtdi 
dispensed with such an original piimitive use of their lots, 
and inscribed the symbolical characters, upon cuttings of 
any one tree, as we find this habit prevalent in some of 
the Germans, their neighbours, who also had xheix Bardittis, 
Barddas, ox Bardic institutions. Their manner of divining 
by lots, is thus described by Tacitus, De moribus Germ, 
and translated by Dr. Borlase : 

*^ They cut a rod, or twig, taken from a fruitbearing 
tree, into little short sticks, or tallies ; and, having distin- 
guished them one from the other, by certain marks, lay 
them, without any order, as they chance to fall, on a white 
garment. Then comes the priest of the state, if the con- 
sultation be at the request of the public, but if it be a matter 
of private curiosity, the master of the family may serve well 
enough, and, having prayed to the gods, looking up to 
heaven, he takes up each billet, or stick, three times, and 
draws his intei-pretation from the marks before impressed on 
them. If these marks intimate a prohibition to proceed, 
there is no further inquiry made that day concerning that 



282 

particular affair ; but^ if they have full authority to go on, 
they then proceed to the auspicia^ or divining from birds." 
Antiq, of Cornwall f P. 139. 

I would just observe^ in this place, that, in the course of 
my essay, no labour of mine has aimed at the support of 
any one preconceived hypothesis. My opinion is not what I 
brought with me, to the research, but what has been the result 
of inquiries. It was gradually formed, and was impressed, 
by the force of evidence. I aim at no conceit of invention. 
My utmost pretension is, to re-discover what has been long 
concealed, by collecting facts, which, for many centuries, 
have been preserved in an insulated state. In every period and 
stage of the disquisition, I have adduced what appears to 
me competent evidence. My witnesses too, (so far from 
havingvbeen capable of collusion,) were not conscious of 
each other's existence ; yet, their testimony so well con- 
nects, appears so consistent with itself, in its various parts, and 
in the general sum, that I cannot hesitate in concluding— 
it is the evidence of truth. 



283 



Sect. VII. Of the Jntiguity of the Druidka^ Alphabet. 



M, 



.UST it;, then, be admitted, as an historical truth, that, 
at some remote, and obscure, period of the Celtic annals, 
the Druids devised such a system of symbolical sprigs, as 
has been now described, improved it, and refined upon 
it, so as to complete the invention of an original al- 
phabet? — ^That they effected all this, by the means of 
some favourable properties in their ovirn language, and by 
the repeated exertions of their own genius, independent of 
extraneous aid, or primitive tradition ?— This will, by no 
means, follow as a consequence. 

From all the information >ve have acquired, respecting the 
Druids, it appears to have been their main business, to cherish^ 
and preserve, more than to improve. They are every where 
represented, as extremely tenacious of long-established cus-^ 
toms ; but never as inventors of new arts. We hear 
much of their traditions, but nothing of their disco^ 
veries. Whilst they regarded, with superstitious respect, their 
venerable traditions of antiquity, so jealous were they of in- 
novations, that they had scarce the courage to extend the 
limits of science, or of moral philosophy ; much less did they 
evince an ambition to keep any pace, in refinement, with 
polished neighbours. The subjects of their discussion were 
few, but elevated ; their manner of treating them, solemn, 
and mysterious. The whole institution carried strong 
features of primitive ages. From these considerations, I 
am disposed, rehgiously, to adopt their own tradition, that 



284 

the ground work of Druidism had been, at least, coeval to 
the Celtic nation. If this be admitted, it will not seem im- 
probable, that the general principles of their symbolical 
alphabet, together with all the radicals of the language, 
upon which it was founded, were not the invention of the 
Druids, as ^ national order of men, but were preserved 
by them, from that period, when the families of the earth 
issere divided. 

That the Druids did in fact preserve the memory of re- 
markable things, from this remote age, I have already 
shewn, and as the Druids, — indeed the Celtce, in general, 
are represented, not as an inventive people, but as extremely 
tenacious of old customs, it may be well presumed, that 
this curious system, which unites their hieroglyphics, and 
their letters, had been formed, as to its general principles, 
before their migration out of Asia, — and that the Druids 
either preserved it, as they found it, or else acted upon an 
established principle, in accommodating the symbols to 
their own circumstances, and their own situation. 

And this will appear to be confirmed, not in theory alone, 
but, in fact, if attention is given, to the Druidical account 
of the invention, and so as to compare the system, in its pro^ 
gressive stages, with those analogies, which may be traced, 
in very ancient periods, and in countries, where the 
influence of the Gaulish, and British, Druids, as a local 
order, could not have operated. The former of those topics 
I shall touch upon, in this present section. 

In Taliesin's account of the invention of the system, therc 
are mythological allusions, that would require considerable 
depth of learning, and more habits of leisure than mine to 
elucidate. I shall oiily endeavour to represent a few par- 



285 

ticulars, which may serve to point out opinion, and x^ 
commend the whole, to the notice of the antiquary. 

As the Druidical Bard ascribes the perfection of the art, 
to the Gzvyddion, or Sywyddion, Sages, or Magicians, in 
general ; so, in particular, he tells us, that Math, kind, or 
nature, first created it, out of nine principles, or elements, 
one of which was, Frwyth Duw Dechrau, the fruit of the 
primaval God, The same Math, is allowed to have had 
much to do, in maturing the plan, — 

A'm swynysei Math, 
Cyn biim diaered. 

*' Math had mysteriously marked me. 
Before I became immortal." 

This Math, I take, to have been the universal genius of 
nature, which discriminated all things, according to their 
various kinds, or species, — the same, perhaps, as the Meth, 
of the Egyptians, and the M»!tk, of the Orphic Bards, which 
was, of all kinds, and the author of all things. 

Orpk. Hymn. 31. 

And again — ^K.«i M>}T»f ©•pwro; ye^iTw^, 

Or ph. Frag. 6 

The Bard proceeds — 

A'm swynwys i wyddion 
Mawr, nwr o Brython— 



286 

'^ I was mysteriously traced by the great Sagiif 
In the tower of tlie mixed race." 

O bump pumhwnt celyyddc^n, 
Athrawon_, ail Mathi 
Pan yr ymddygaid,, 
A'm swynwys i wledig. 
Pan vu led losgedig. 

^* Out of the multitude of arts^ 

Of the teachers, children of Mdthf or nature,- 

When the removal took place, 

I was marked by the chief. 

Whilst he was half parched with fire." 

The last quotations appear to imply, that the art had beeiS 
practised at Babel, and that it was preserved, at the dis- 
persion; but its original invention, according to British 
tradition, was still more remote: for the Bard immedi^ 
ately adds. — 

A'm swynv^rys i Sywydd 
Sywedydd, cyn byd. 
Pan vei gennyv vi vot. 
Pan vei vaint byd, hardd, 
Bardd budd an gnawd, 
A'r wawd y tueddav 
A draetho tavawd: 

** I was marked by the Sage 

Of Sages, in the primitive world,. 

At which time I had a being ;: 

When the inhabitants of the world, were m dignity: 

It wjis my custom to befriend the Bard, 



2S7 

And I dispose the song of praise 
Which the tongue utters/* 

We are then told — 

Neu bum yn ysgor, 
Gan Ddylan ail Mor, 
Ynghylchedd, ymhervedd, 
Rhwng deulin teyrnedd, 
Yn deu wajrw anchwant, 
O nev pan doethant, 
Yn annwvn lliveiriant, 

*^ Truly I was in the bark. 

With Dylan, the son of the sea. 

Embraced in the centre. 

Between the royal knees. 

When the floods came. 

Like the nishing of the hostile spear. 

From heaven, to the great deep.'* 



} 



In another passage of the same poem, the Bard calls 
this system — 

Mwyav tair argyvryd, 
A chweris ym myd; . 
Ac un a dderyw, 
O* ystyr Dilyw. 

'* The greatest of the three mental exertions; 
That disported in the world; 



* Pi. ofYstdr. 



288 

And the one which was- 

Amongst the stores of the Deluge." 

HencCj it is sufficiently clear, that those Bards, who 
professed themselves Druids, did not claim, for their or-' 
der, the invention of the system, or its application to the 
construction of an alphabet. They acknowledge that it 
was anciently known, in other countries, and that it had 
been handed down, from the ages beyond the flood, as a 
treasure of the greatest importance to mankind. 

Let us, then, inquire briefly^ what analogies^ with such 
may be traced in ancient history. 



289 



Sect. VIII. Of general Analogies betzcee2i the System of 
Druidical Symbols, considered as a Method of writings 
and the similar Practice of other Nations^ 



w, 



E learn, from sacred, and profane llistory, that, 
as it was a very general practice of the ancients, to re- 
present, and convey their ideas, by means of symbols, 
taken from stores of natm^e;. so there was no custom, 
either more anciently, or more generally established, than 
to employ trees, plants, and their various parts, for this 
purpose. And for that custom, some very natural reasons 
may be adduced, in addition to those which arise from its 
peculiar convenience. 

In the infancy of the human race, trees, in the gar- 
den of Eden, were divinely pointed out, as emblematical 
of the most aweful ideas — lift and happiness j or death and 
misery. 

The abuse which Adam committed, of these consecrated 
symbols, and its dreadful consequence, to his early descen- 
dants, must have made a forcible impression upon their 
minds : and must have suggested the hint, of recourse to 
the use of trees, not only in the figurative descriptions of 
speech, but in the representation of things, and their se- 
veral relations, by visible signs. 

And the same idea, that would be im{>ressed upon 
such as were present, by the act of pointing at a tree, 

T 



290 

might be conveyed, with precision, to a distance, by a cha- 
lacteristical part of the same, or a similar tree. 

Agreeably to this notion, the token of reconciliation, which 
Is oak received in the ark, was, an olive leaf, and which the 
venerable patriarch seems to have regarded, as a symbol of 
sacred import, conveying an idea of more than simply the 
fact, that trees ingeneral had begun to shoot afresh. 

It might be expected, that we should, only discover 
slight vestiges of si/mboh, like these in the history of 
the Israelites, as this people were, in great measure, with- 
held from the use of such implements, in order to guard 
against their falling into that idolatrous abuse of them, 
which prevailed amongst their neighbours: yet there are 
several figurative expressions, and plain allusions, in the 
Old Testament, which intimate their general acquaintance, 
with something of this kind. 

The father of that nation says, ^'Joseph is 3, fruitful 
bough, a fiuitful bough, by a well> whose branches run over 
the wall." Gen, xlix. 22. The Patriarch's idea would have 
been as clear, had he placed the bough, in the situation he 
describes, or had represented these images in a picture,- 
and said, — ^' This is Joseph J' And his manner of expres- 
sion plainly alludes to such a custom. 



The Lord said unto Jeremiah, — " What hast thou seen f" 
I see a rod of an almond trec'^ ^^ Thou hast seen well; 
for I will hasten my word to perform it." Jer. i. 11, 12. 



<( 



Here the rod of an almond tree must be regarded, as am, 
acknowledged, and well known sy?nbol, of hastening, or 
speed i for the accomplislmient of the divine purpose, zcith 



€91 

Speed, is to correspond with such an intimation giveri by the 
symbol. See also the apologue of Jotham, Judges ix. 
where the olive tree, the Ji.g tree, the vine, and bramble, 
are described^ as the symbols of things ; observe also the 
apologue of Jehoaski II. Kings xiv. 9* 

From these^ and similat passages^ it may be inferred;, 
that certain trees, and rods, or staves, or bratiche^, taken 
from them, were considered as means of information^ 
or as the symbols of distinct ideas : and therefore, the}' were 
constituted the general badges of certain offices, especially 
such as implied a sacredness of character. Hence the 
sceptres of kings, the rods of priests, ambassadors, and 
ntagistrates, — the rod of Moses, of Aaron, of the Egyp- 
tian magicians, &c< 

These rods were Considered, not only as the emblems of 
power, and of authority, but as the immediate means of 
executing theqi* 

The rod of Moses, is called the rod 6f Godj and the Al- 
mighty tells him : — " Thou shalt take this rod in thine hand> 
and therewith thou shalt do signs." Accordingly, we find 
Aaron lifting up his rod over the river, and it became 
blood ; Moses, lifting up his rod over the sea, and it- 
Was divided; — Elisha, giving his staff to Oehazi, to lay 
on the face of a dead child, that he might revive. 

So generally was the emblematical use' of a ?W, or 
staff, admitted, that the words themselves became synony- 
mous to power, commission^ a message, a sentence, and 
the like. And removing, or breal;i ng the rod, or staff, 
implied, that autliority v/as abrogated, and power destroyed. 



292 

Thus, in Psalm ex. '^ The Lord shall send the rod of thy 
power out of Sion; — be thou ruler even in the midst among 
thine enemies." Here the rod clearly implies a commission ; 
as^ in Micah vi. 9, it imports a decree. ^' Hear ye the 
rody and who hath appointed it." Again : — ^^ The Lord 
shall take away the staff — the mighty man, the man of 
war, the judge, the prophet, the prudent, the ancient," 
&c. Isaiah iii. 1^ 2. 

*^ The Lord hath broken th-e staff of the wicked, and the 
sceptre of the ruleis." 

*'' Moah is spoiled ; and all ye that are about him, be- 
moan him, and all ye that know his name, say. How U 
the strong staffs broken, and the beautiful rod / " * 

These forms of expression must have alluded, neces- 
sarily, to some established customs, — they must be referred 
indispensibly to some primitive system, which regarded rods, 
branches, and staves, as the symbols of certain ideas, and 
as the vehicles of messages, commissions, or the like. 
So far the customs of the old Asiatics corresponded in 
tlieir prevalence to those of Druids, in Europe, 

To this extent, the device was innocent, but the heathens 
of Asia, as well as those of Europe, seem to have abused 
it, for tlie purpose of divination, as we may collect from 
the following passages. 

^^ My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff 



* The wands, carried bv Officers of State at our Court, and at this Tcrv time^ 
adujyied, ou^ianalij-, -upon the same principle. 



293 

DECLARETH unto them/' — *' They sacrifice upon the tops 
of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under 
oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof 
is good,'' Hos. iv. 12, 13. 

Again, — Isaiah xix. 11 to 15. The prophet speaks of 
the wise men of Egypt being deceived in their divinations, 
and declares, — " Neither shall there be any work for 
Egypt, which the head, or tail, branch, or rnsh, may 
do." Here is a manifest allusion, not merely to the im- 
plements of writing, or of the geometrician ; but, evi- 
dently, to a superstitious practice, in which rush, and branch 
were employed, 

Ezekiel terminates his climax of abominations by these 
■words : — '^ Lo ! they put the branch to their nose !" 
Ch. viii. 17. 

Upon the whole, then, some general, but evident ana- 
logies to the symbolical system thus intimated, may be 
found in the sacred records, and carried back to very an- 
cient periods. 

There was another ancient custom amongst the Asiatics^ 
which approaches to an identity with our Drmidical, and 
German method of divining by lots, as described by Tacitus, 
and quoted above. This practice was called, hy the Greeks, 
Rhabdomantia, or Belomantia, divination by rods, or by 
arrows, either the one or the other being used for this pur- 
pose, as it might be most convenient. But, in this appli- 
cation, the rods, or the arrows, were marked, or inscribed^ 
like the German lots : they were no longer viewed, in 
tliemselves, as symbols of the distinct ideas* 



294 

^^ The King of Bahi/lon stood— rto use divinatijoti; he • 
made his arrorm bright ; he consulted with images ; he 
looked in the hver," Ezek. xxi, 21. On this passage, 
Jerom observe.Sj that there was a method of divination, by 
marking, or inscribipg arrozcs, with every one's name, and 
mixing them in the quiver, to see whose arrow would come 
out first, or what city should be first attacked. To this 
fallacious decision, the prophet alludes, in the 13th verse 
of the same chapter : — " Because it is a trial : and what if 
the sword contemn even the rodT^ 

This inscription of rods appears to have been a refinement 
Tipon the earliest, or primitive custom, and seems to have 
been introduced, when the symbolical species could not be 
readily obtained. But the custom was not modern ; it was 
known to the Israelites \n the days of iVJoses, and, perhaps^ 
long before. '' Speak unto the children of Israel, and take 
of every one of them a rod, according to the house of their 
fathers, of all the princes, according to the house of their 
fathers, twelve rods : write thou every man's name upon 
his rod" These were laid up for the decision of an imr 
portant question, They were not, in this instance, drawn 
as lots, — for the Lord himself decided by a miracle. But 
the general practice appears to have been adopted fa- 
miliarly, in cases of decision, or in the assignment of per-? 
tipns by lot. Hence rqd, lot, portion, or inheritance, are 
used for synonymous term^. 

" The J^Qi-d^s portion is his people : Jacolf is the lot of his 
inheritance." Deut, xxxji. 9- 

^' Remember thy congregation, which thou hast pur- 
chased of old ; the rod of thine inheritance which thou 
hast redeeined," Psalm Ixxiy. 2» 



295 

" Jsrae/ is the ro£^ of his inheritance." Jer. U. 19, 

*^ The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of tlie 
righteous." Psalm cxxv. 3. 

In allusion to this use of inscribed rods, whatever was 
assigned by lot, or devised by compact, was represented as 
passing under the rod, ^^ And concerning the tithe of the 
herd, or of the flock,, even whatsoever passeth under the 
rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord." Lev. xxvii. 32. 
*' And I will cause you to pass under the rod ; and I will 
bring you into the bond of the covenant J^ Ezek. xx. 37- 

The same prophet (chap, xxxvii. 16 to 20) particularly 
describes the use of such rods, or billets, in forming cove-^ 
nants : he undoubtedly delineates the popular, and the esta- 
blished mode of using them ; for the intention is, by fa- 
miliar, and by intelligible signs, to represent, for instruc- 
tion, to the Jezoish people, the ceremony of making a 
solemn covenant. " Take thou one stick, and write upon 
it, for Judah, waAforthe children of Israel, his companions. 
Then take . another s^/cA;, and write upon it, for Joseph, the 
stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his com- 
panions; and join them, one to another, into one stick, and 
they shall become one, in thine hand. Say unto them. Thus 
saith the Lord : Behold, I will take the stick of Ephraim, 
&c. and will put him with the stick of Judah, and make 
them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand : and 
the sticks whereon thou writest, shall be one in thine 

HAND, BEFORE THEIR EYES," 

This usage was nearly the same as that of Britiali Bards^ 
in the construction of their Peithi/nen, already described, 
except that, upon solemn, and religious occasions, the I^-n 



296 

ter used the rods, uninscribed, regarding them, in tlieit 
specific characters, as the symbols of ideas. 

When rods, or billets, were used,, amongst the Jews, 
in the assignment of inheritance, in confirmation of pur- 
chase, or in other compacts, they were, perhaps, attested, 
and laid up for memorials, that, in case of dispute, there 
might be an appeal to the voucher : This appears to be 
implied, in the expression of the Psalmist — ^' Thou shalt 
viaintain my lot.'^ 

Breaking the rod, or staff, seems, also, to have been 
the general mode of dissolving compacts. See Zech. xi. 
7, 10, 11. *^^ And I took my 5^a^, even beauty, and cut it 
asunder, that I might break my covenant, which I made 
with all the people"^. 

Perhaps I may have dwelt rather tediously upon this part 
of my subject. The design was, to shew, from the sacred 
records, that vestiges of a system, resembling that which 
Druids possessed, are traced amongst other nations, with 
whom that Celtic order had no apparent connection; 
and, consequently, that our Druids were not the original 
contrivers, but merely the religious preservers of the 
system, 

If traditions, and customs, of Pagan Europe are ex-» 
amined, something of the same kind will be discovered, 
as traces of a system, which contemplated particular 
species of trees, and plants, as being symbols of distinct 



* When the Lord High Steward, upon trials in the House of Peers, dissolve* 
Lis commission, he notifies the event, by the act of taking the wand into hia 
hand, and breaking it, 



297 

ideas. This, was indeed 59 ancient, that Greeks, who had 
not preserved any unbroken chain of primitive traditions^ 
refer us back for its origin, from one stage to another, 
till we get beyond the verge of their history, and 
their fables, or even the original structure of their lan- 
guage. 

The following particulars are so generally known, that it 
will be sufficient, barely to mention them. 

1 . Not only, in general, trees were esteemed sacred ; but 
a particular species of tree, w^as consecrated separately to 
each individual god, or, more properly, in other words, 
it was regarded as a symbol of the deity, considered in one 
of his distinct operations, or characters. For the polytheism 
of the ancients appears, in great measure, to have arisen 
from the use of descriptive, and relative terms, as well as 
from the application of types and symbols, to the object 
of pointing out the relations between God and man, 
in the works of nature. Amidst all the confusion, intro- 
duced by this practice, the unity of the divine Being was 
a favourite principle, not forgotten, or overlooked. Thus, 
&n old poet has declared : 

'E^p,>j? $', *H(paKTo$ T£ x?vt;Ti?, Tlccv, ZiV(; re ycci H,-*?, 
A§T£^.»?, n^ titus^yoq A'Bxo7\?\uv ElS ©EOS ETTIN. 

" Pluto, Proserpine, Ceres, Venus, Cupid, 

Triton, 'Nereus, Tethys, and 'Neptune ; 'l 

Hermes, Vulcan, Pan, Jupiter, Juno, 

Diana, and Apollo, is one god.'* 



300 

are in their trunks? These are read by the sages^ vrho 
were versed in science^ and who delivered books." 

And this hypothesis^ perhaps, will help us to assign the 
reason, for the following derivations of KXa^o?, a rod, shoot, 
or tender branch, which forcibly point out the uses to 
which those branches were applied. KXa^eo;, I speak. From 
the materials of which a hedge is composed, it is called, 
KA>5^o?, hence ythvi^uv, a good omen, xM^on^ofj^ony I prophecy, 
divine, or take an omeri. Let us recollect, that sprigs 
of the Druids were called Coelbreni, omen sticks,-^ 
were equally used, for the purpose of divination by lot, 
and of representing sounds, or words, — and were said, 
therefore, to speak. As the Hebrezv language, and each- 
of the Celtic dialects, use the same term for a lot, and' for 
a rod, or stick, it may be conjectured, that xXa^os or x^>J^of 
a rod, and xXrj^o? a lot, were originally but one term, in 
Greek, perhaps, x^*j^^-o?, — for Cledr, in Welsh, has the sense 
of rods for watling* 

Again : from xXa,^Q<;, the Meenades, or priestesses of 
Bacchus, were denominated KXa^w^s?. They were esteemed 
prophetesses, and probably used the symbolical sprigs, ov 
lots, as means of divination, like their neighbours, the 
Germans, and the Celt a. 

The Greeks, who were not in the secret of these Thracinn 

ladies, mistaking their general name, for a derivative, 

sprung from the word iaohvoi/.ui, represented them as mad, or 

furious, whereas, they were properly UTivxhq, declarers, or 

indicators. 

The name comes from the general European term, Men^ 



301 

\vhich_, in present Irish, is mein ; in Welsh, myn, mens, — > 
wiU, pleasure, mind, meaning, — ahd^ by way of eminence, 
the celestial mijid. 

The same word seems to be the root of (Gre^k) lAnwut, 
indico, significo, inentem ostendo : n^iji'*) Luna, ifidicatria:, 
scil. temporum : fxvn;, Odium, — mentis 'vis, &c. 

To this xXscj'o?, and its derivatives,, may be subjoined the 
old Latin word, rudis, a rod, whence we have rudi^ 
mtutum, an element, or first principle ; erudio, eruditio, 
CTuditus, &c. 



The most ancient method of using letters, in Greece and 
Italy, seems to have been, by cutting them across laths, 
or splinters of wood, like inscribed sticks of Lzekiel, 
and the peithynen of British Bards, 

Pliny says, " table books of wood were in use before the 
time of Homer," and refers us, for proof, to the following 
words, in the Iliad, concerning Bellerophon, 



Plutarch, and Diog. Laert. inform us, that the laws of 
Solan were inscribed on tables of wood, and A. Gelliiis 
says of them : — In legihus Solonis, illis ajitiquissimiss, qua;, 
Athenis, axibus Ugiieis incises erant." Lib. II. C. xii. 

I think Hesiod has a covered allusion to this very custom. 
The Muses had inspired him with a voice that was divine, so 



302 

that he could slug of things past^ or to come^ and they com- 
manded him to celebrate the race of the immortal gods. At 
the same time, they gave him a staff, a branch of green 
laurel^ to cut, or shave, and mark, Theog. V. 30. 

lliis must have been a an implement for inscribing, and 
recording the subject of his inspiration ; otherwise his^ 
amusement must have been very ill-timed. 

The characters, in the oldest part of the Amyclean record, 
— which may be regarded as the most ancient specimen 
of Greek writing, that is known, — consist of strait hnes, and' 
of angles ; they were, therefore, evidently adapted for the" 
purpose of cutting over plain surfaces. 

The same is to be observed of the oldest Italian letters.- 
See No. I. and 11. of the inscriptions, co'^ieAhy Mt, Byres^^ 
from the sepulchral grottos at Cornet a, the ancient Tar- 
quinii. Gent, Mag. June 1779. 

A similar method of writing prevailed amongst the bar^ 
barous nations of Europe. The Scythians conveyed their 
ideas, by marking, or cutting, certain figures, and a 
variety of lines, upon splinters, or billets of wood* 

'EqTj'xccivov 'oc i^s'Kcv, ei^u>.se, 'fn'O. y.o:* izo'hvzrj'fi y^a^i^iKXy Is^jwaxA 
s77^a^ovT£$, Tytot tyy7\.v(p6V7iq. Emtath. in II. Z. p. 4S9. 

Dr, Borlcfse, Antiq. of CornzcaU, P. 132, quotes a 
passage, in the storj'^ of Gretterus, which discovers the 
game practice amoiio-st the Fag-ans of the North. " The 
enchantress, taking a knife, cut the Ilunic characters,, 
ealled the fata Ics liuncE, on a stick, or piece of zcood, and 
smeared it with some of her own blood ; then singing her 



303 

mcantations retrograde, she went round the enchanted 
wand^ contrary to the course of the sun, and uttered all 
her cursings : she then threw the stick, with observation, 
ritually, into the sea, and prayed, — that it might be wafted 
to the Island of Drarigoa, and carry every kind of curse 
to Gretterus" From BarthoL L. III. C. ii. P. 66l ; and 
Keyskr, P. 467. 

I have long suspected, that Jacobus device, Gen. xxx, 
37, alludes to different methods of writing, practised in 
his time. 

The spotted, and speckled, and ringstraked, amongst th^ 
flocks and herds, were to be the portion of that patriarch. 
^^ And Jacob took him rods, (the term is bpO, mekel, a 
twig, from bp, kel, a voice, or sound, perhaps, because 
twigs were the symbols of sounds) of ^reen poplar, of the 
hazel, and of chesnut, and peeled white strakes in them, 
and made the white (or Lab an pb) appear in the rods/' 
&c. Whether we translate Laban, white, or as the name 
of a man. Jacobus ostensible design seems to have been 
fair, — it intimated a wish that his uncle's cause should 
prosper. 

But it was consistent with Jacob's character, to forward 
his own interest, by indirect means; and this he may 
have aimed at, by choosing that species of rods, which 
may have been regarded as the symbols of sounds, and of 
ideas, in conformity with his purpose. 

The poplar, and the hazel, amongst the Celtic symholsf 
represent E C, and the corresponding Hebrew letters, pn, 
denote a circumscribing with lines, a marking rou7td, and, 
tlierefore, a ringstrak&dness. 



304 

|lD*i^> ormiin, the chesiiut, or^, as the Seventy render iti 
/plant treCy does not occur amongst these ; yet it may have 
been hieroglyphic^ or the symbol of an idea. Farkhurst 
extracts the term from n")i^, ore, — to discovery display, 
and n3Dj tnency — to distinguish j county — make a distinc-^ 
tion of parts. 

As the sprig readily suggested the name of the trecy may 
not that symbol haye intimated a wish;, that the cattle woftld 
be coloured with distinct parts, or become spotted, and 
speckled, 

- The characters on the Babylonian bricks^ lately published 
by Dr. Hager, were not^ perhaps^ intended^ originally, to 
represent nails. Their component parts are not unlike the 
points of sprigs, and prickles of thorns, plucked from their 
branches. When I saw them first,, they reminded me of 
an obscure passage in Herodotus, respecthig the builders 

of that celebrated city. Aix rfir}>tQvra, huuv 'CrAt;$o?, Ta^?o»-; 

KaXc^lj^wv hx<;ro^Qxl^,yr£;.. (L. i. 1790 whicli Valla tlius translates^ — ■ 

Per tricesimum quemqut laternm ordinem, summitates 
ARUNDiNUM, instipatas, coriglutinabant. May not this 
point at the impression of those frames, which had been 
carved with sj^j-ig letters? 

After I had made knovv^n my intention of publishing these^ 
essayS;, many curious tracts, upon pliiloiogy, and writing,^ 
were put into my hands, by hberal friends. — Amongst these^^. 
was, " The prospectus of an Irish Dictionary, with 
an Introduction, and Preface, by General Vallancfy. 
Though I cannot accede, implicitly, to this gentleman's- 
opinion, I am pioud of acknowledging my obligation to. 
him, for the following particulars. They have too close:^ 



505 

xmd much too important a connection, with my suhject> in 
the section before us, to be overlooked, 
'k 

1 . Mr. Hammer, a Germun, who has travelled, lately, in 
Egypt, and Syria, has brought, it seems, to Englaiid, a 
manuscript, written in Arabic, It contains a number of 
alphabets. Two of these consist entirely of trees* The 
book is of authority. Introd, P. 37* 

Whatever be the date of this manuscript, or the degree of 
credit which it may deserve, it cannot have been fabricated 
by the artificer, to confirm the doctrine of the Irish, and 
British Bards : it furnishes, therefore, a collateral proofs 
that the ancients regarded the symbols of sounds^ in the de- 
lineated form of /^rees 2iiaA pla7its. 

2. The G eneral quotes the authority of Bayer, '^ That 
each of the Chaldean, or Hebrew letters, derives its name, 
from some f re <?> or shrub; as, a, Beth, a thorn; 1 Daleth, 
^vine; ji He, the pomegranate ; 1, Vau, the palm; *, Jod, 
Ivy; D, Teth, the mulberry tree; D. Samech^ the apple 
tree; D, Pe, the cedar; n> Resh, the pine, ^c." Pref, 
P. 59, 60. 

This opinion, is not grounded upon British, ox n^ow Irish, 
tradition. 

3. The following quotations, convey the same idea, re- 
specting the origin of letters. 

*' Fructiferarum arhorum plantatio, hieroglyphice, in 
divinis Uteris, accipitur pro discipUna doctorum" Ilesych 
Pierius, 



306 

Kircher, thus translates an explanation of the tree of 
knozcledgCj hy a Chaldean Rabbi j named Naham-^ 

'^ Arbor magna, in medio paradisi, ciijus rami, dic^ 
TiONES, idterius, in ramos parvos, et folia, ouje sunt 
LITERS, extendimtur ,"—" The great tree in the midst of 
Paradise, the sprigs, and leaves of which , were letters, and 
the brajiches, zeordsj* 

'^ Theiit, a Gracis, trismegistus appellatus est — Hunc 
asserunt authores, Mgyptiis prafuisse, eisque leges, ac lite^ 
ras tradidisse ; Uterarum vero cJiaracteres in animantium, 
ARBORUMQUE FiGURis instituisse" Eli, Scked, P. 109. 
Prof, P. 60, See. • 

4. The General gives the following metaphors, from the 
Hebrezv, and Chaldaic, which make, forcibly, to the same 
point. 

Tx^,Ets, a tree : the root, says Bate, signifies, to take, 
#r give instruction, 

013, Kerem, a vine, a vineyard; — a study, a ichool, a 
college. 

Ch. ]i;'iw, Sharash, Radix, — Tkema, vox primitiva, undc^ 
voces derivatf©, instar ramorum expullulant. 

lleb, J)>yD, Saiph, a branch; — a thought, — (Robertson) 
Saiph, Rajnus; — Cogitatio ; — ramos amputare, — Thorn, 

Heb. and Ch. inr, Zamar, to prune ;— to sing a song,-^ 
Tlie Arabs changed M into B, whence Zabar, putavit 
'mtcm; — intelligentia, liber, scripsit, scriptura. 



307 

hVk^, Shilah, Tropago, — dicitur de^pla^itd, a r bore mittc^itt 
ramos: in Kal, usurpatum reperio, defaloe; de libro, de 
^pistold, 

1?J, Gizar, Secare; radix; sj/Udba; literarum coni^ 
prdicnsio, 

\<T\Wy Skuta, lulea, ordo, stylus, modus et usm loquendi-, 
struct ur a verborum: Syr, Shlta, Fitis; Shuta, fructus ar^ 
boris ; — verbum, sermo. — Shita, Firgula, arbor; pkrasis} 
versus libri. 

V*p'i Kis, lignum; ]Pp> Kisan, folium arboris; niJO-D^p 
Kistor, — Scriba, notarius, 

nT1% Yoreky a shoot; instruttion, 

i<'y\t, Pora, Ramus fxcundus ;— Lib dlus, 

•^3, Bar, de ramis vitis facundce^ Ezek, xvii. 6, et 6.6 
ioqueld humand^G asset. 

In fine, nvz*, Soak, to study, is derived ftoin t]>Z% Siah^ 
a tree; and from iv_, yor, the shoot, or branch— ny, — yara^ 
to teach. 

Metaphors iji Arabic^ 

The ancient Arabs, said, proverbially, — "^ I know the 
wood of the tree, before the fruit is ripened." — ^' I knovy^ 
his genius, as soon as he speaks." 

Jlam, icience, learning ; — the cypress tree, 

u 2 



308 

Tesnif, a tree, putting forth leaves; — invention, compO" 
ution, publishing a book, 

Werek, species arbor is; — -qui scripsit ; folium arhoris; 
' — scriptura. 

Fan7ij ramus; — modus et ratio orationis; pars art is vel 
doctrince : Fanuu, Rami; — Sciential. Talua,Jlorerey gem- 
mare ccepit arbor; — cognovit, consideramt, animum advertit 
<id rem. 

Even the Chinese use the same metaphor^ si, a tree, (siah, 
Chald.) is the kei/, or the radix of su, a man of erudition ; 
of sai, lea4'Hi)tg, wisdom, a master of arts, a mandarine, — 
and of sw ; a book, — Pref P. 60 — QQ. 

For a more ample catalogue of such authorities, and me- 
taphors, a fuller account of them, and a demonstration of 
their connection with traditions, and the language of the 
Irish, I refer my readers to this curious publication. The 
extracts I have now made, in addition to what I have stated 
before, may suffice, to shew, that a derivation of alphabetical 
characters, from sprigSj and leaves, of trees, and plants, was 
not the solitary conceit of a Celtic ancestor ; but the genuine 
rclic' of ancient, and, perhaps, universally accredited system. 

We can trace, uniformly, in the figures of speech, in the 
terms, the customs, traditions, and superstitions of antiquity, 
(both in sacred and profane writers,) the vestiges of sr/mbols, 
adopted from various kinds of trees, and communicating 
ideas, by parts of those trees. We find, that rods, and 
s^jprigs, in some way, or another, have represented the first 
principles of speech, learning, and science. Though we 
cannot always connect the symbolical sprig with its appro* 



309 

priate letter, it is^ perhaps, because the alphabets^, appa- 
rently founded upon that system, such as the Pelasgic, and 
Etruscan J were become obsolete, before the time of those 
authors who now remain. 

The obscure hints upon this topic, seem explained b ythe 
symbols called Druidical, and so called, not because Druids 
invented^ but singly, because they cherished and preserved 
them. 

Amongst other nations, the dispersed and scattered mem- 
bers of the system appear, as fragments of high antiquit}^ 
in terms, customs, and superstitions; but its fundamental 
principles of remote antiquity, were either forgotten, or 
locked up, amongst the mysteries of the sacred orders. The 
secrets of the Magi, the Orpheans, the Priests of the Cabiri, 
and of Egi/pt, perished with each of their institutions. We 
cannot, therefore, expect, from Greece, and Rome, and much 
less from the sacred volume, a complete elucidation of 
iheh arcajia. But, abating for some instances of local im- 
provements, and corruptions, we may at once pronounce 
Druids to have been of the same class. The discipline they 
enforced, the sciences they taught, and thp opinions they 
inculcated, were, in general, the same. The source, from 
whence they had professed, uniformly, to have derived 
them, was the same ; viz. from the ship of Dylan, the son 
of the sea, zoho survived, with his single familij, when the 
world was drowned. 

Some vestiges of these Druidical institutions, with some 
fragments of their traditions, together with songs of those 
Bards, who immediately succeeded them, and who professed 
themselves, with pride, their disciples, have survived, even 
to this day. From these, we have enabled ourselves ta 



310 

investigate th3 real principles of their symhoh, andj, con-, 
sequently, to explain the mysteriows hints of antiquity. 

-As we proceed in comparing the letters, whjch arose 
from that series of natural symboh, with letters of other 
ancient nations^ I think, it will further appear^ that^ not- 
withstanding the diversity of characters, of names, and of 
series, in the alphabets now extant, the original invention of 
all those letters, was the same ; and equally founded, upoi^ 
a system of hieroglyphics, or symbols, taken from the ap^ 
pearfinces, and stores of nature. 



311 



Sect. IX. That all Letters have proceeded from one 
original Invention. 

JD OR the purpose of elucidating this factj it may not be 
improper to inquire, in the first place, into the analogy 
that appears between the letters of the CeltcB, and those of 
their neighbours, the Germans; who, as it is known, lay 
claim to an alphabet of their own. The invention of their 
letters, has, indeed, been ascribed, by some authors, to a 
Bishop of the Goths, in the fourth century ; but thac, is a 
palpable mistake. The Runic alphabet was, unquestion- 
ably, known to the German tribes, in the ages of Pa- 
ganism, as appears, from numberless inscriptions upon 
rocks^ (that primitive kind of records) all over the north. 

And, it is remarkable, that, upon the introduction of 
Christianity into those regions, the ancient alphabet had 
been so far from being deemed the invention of a Bishop, 
that it was reprobated as magical, and profane, so that 
even the use of it was discontinued. The only possible 
grounds for such an opinion, and for the consequent pro- 
hibition of the Rimes, must have been, that such letters had 
been employed in th^ Pagan customs of divination, and 
sorceri/, 

Tlie Germams are known to have used characters for these 
purposes, and the Runic ones acquired an ill fame in con- 
sequence of their profanation. The Runes Avere, there- 
fore, those very nota, or marks, which Tacitus describes 
the Germans to have inscribed \ipon their magic lots.. 



312 

Mr. Sammes, Brit, Antiq. P. 439> gives the followmg 
account of the abuse of these letters^ and of their disgrace. 

'^ The Runic characters were made use of by Woden, 
not only for inscriptions, but for magical charms, and im- 
precations : and for this reason,, after the faith of Christ 
was received, the Runic characters began to grow so far 
out of credit, that many, spurred on with too much zeal, 
not only destroyed such bewitching fooleries, where they 
found them, but burnt, without distinction, all sorts of 
boolvs written in that letter, and defaced monuments, and 
old inscriptions, for no other reason, but because they bore 
the character. Yet, nevertheless, the dotage of the vul- 
gar, on these uncouth letters, and the opinion, they con- 
tained in them a certain power, and energy (which appre-* 
hension yet remaineth, among the simple, in their charms, 
to this day) maintained its ground, so long after Chris- 
tianity itself; that Locccnrus witnesseth, Sigfrid, an English 
bishoT), thought it necessary to have them altered, which he 
did by the assistance of the Pope, who utterly banished 
them from Swedelund, in the year 1050^ and substituted the 
Latin character in their room. The same usage they found 
in Spain^ under Alpho7isus, Ki^g of Castile, and Navar, 
in the year 1086, and were, at last, finally condemned iii 
the council of Tholoun, in the year 1116." 

The arrangement of the Runic alphabet, v»'as different 
from that of the Irish, or the Bardic ; but this difference, 
may have arisep from some local conceit, of either nation. 

The Runes had also peculiar names, which, undoubtedly]^ 
had their meanings, in the dialect which first imposed 
them; as F, Fei ; 0, Oy,s ; Ry RidJiur ; /, lis ^ S, Sol ^^ 
T, Tyr, 8C:C, 



313 

Notwithstanding these marks of distinction^ there are 
known circumstances^ which point out the extreme proba- 
bihty of their affinities, and close relations to the Celiac, 

The general term, by which we distinguish the northern 
alphabet, is Run. This term. Sir H. Spdman, as well as 
other learned men, traces to the Saxon, Ryne, which imports 
a mystery y or hidden thing. The Celtca call their system of 
symbols. Run, and Rhhi, which, in the Irish, and Welsh 
languages, have precisely the same import. 

Though one, and the same power, be not constantly repra- 
sented by a similar character, in both alphabets, yet, the series 
of Runic, and Bardic characters, taken altogether, have an 
astonishing resemblance, between each other, and, in the 
various copies of Runes, taken from old inscriptions, cha- 
racters appear, which are exactly the same as in the Bardic 
alphabets 

In those instances, w^herein the Runic letters differ from 
the Bardic, the former still appear like sketches of the 
sprigs of trees, either single, or combined : and the terms, 
by which the Gothic nations describe their letters, suggest 
the idea, that they were so understood. Thus, an alpha- 
betic character in Saxon, or old English, was called boc" 
stave, a book-staff'. Versteg. Chap. vii. 

Sammes, P. 441, quotes Runic verses, which he thus 
translates, *' Thou knowest the Runes, and loose charac^ 
ters, radna stajji," rod staves, or letters, &c. 

And again, P. 443, he thus translates a quotation from the 
Edda :-^'^ That^ 12, I know, if I see on the top of wood^ 



314 



(tre) a ghost walkings so I cut it out, and receive it in the 
Rim, that the man shall come, and speak with me." 

From the identity of the general name, hy which the 
Celtic, and Runic letters are distinguished ; from the iden- 
tity of the radical number in both, (sixteen) and the general 
agreement of their powers ; from the identity of the uses to 
which they were applied, the similarity of several charac- 
ters, together with a common tradition, that all of them 
originated from staves, rods, or sprigs, cut from the tops 
of trees — a fair conclusion maybe formed, that both alpha- 
bets, were grafts of the same root, or sprung from the same 
stock, and were devised upon the samie plan, or system. 

Yet, we must not suppose, that characters of Ger- 
ma?! Runic, were borrowed from Druids of Gaul, and 
Britain. They were used by Gothic tribes, as appears 
from the la»nguage of all Runic inscriptions : " The 
Northern Goths held their letters in the highest reverence, 
— ascribed the invention of them to their chief deity — and 
attributed even to the letters themselves, supernatural virtues." 
A veneration so bigotted, and superstitious, demonstrates, 
that such letters as these, must have belonged, with shades 
of difference, to the same people, from remote periods of 
antiquity. Their ancient custom of divination was con- 
nected with the use of them, and they had not the faintest 
hints of tradition, that ever they had borrowed them from any 
other nation. Their invention was, at least, ascribed by 
them to their chief deity, and the founder of their familj^ 

The exclusive property of a Runic alphabet, is awarded, 
in a manner, to the Germans, by the Celta themselves^ 
The old Irish had a series of characters, which they called 
Marcomannic Runes, The Marcomanni, who were the sub- 



315 

jects of Ariovhtus, in C(£sar's time^ were in the habit of 
divining by lots, (De Bell Gall. i. 53.) They were of 
course in possession of the notes, or characters^ employed 
in that practice ; and the Irish would not have called them 
Marcomannic, had they been altogether the same as the 
national characters of the Cdtcz, 

We may^ therefore^ consider the Runic letters of the 
norths as only different sketches, or draughts,, of the si/nzy 
holical sprigs, acknowledged by the Celtcs, and we mai/ 
infer^ as^ I think, we must, that both nations, with some 
accidental changes, derived the system from their common 
ancestors. The northern copy is not so uniform, and sim- 
ple, as the Bardic ; but, at the same time, it presents marked 
and venerable features of antiquity, which are verified by the 
oldest inscriptions of Greece, and Italy. 

Let me now investigate the affinity between the Celtic 
letters, and those of Greece, or of Rome. But I must 
premise a little historical epitome of their alphabets, as far 
as my information extends. Ancient authors tell us of two 
distinct alphabets, which, in different ages, were known to 
the inhabitants of Greece. The oldest of these was 
called the Pelasgic, the Attic, the Argive, or the Ar- 
cadian, from the several people, by whom it had been em- 
ployed. It appears to have been the same as the Etruscan^ 
or old Italian, alphabet, which also was called Arcadian, 
because it was brought, as they said, out of Arcadia into 
Latium, by Evander, 

The Pelasgi, from whom this alphabet receives its fa- 
miliar title, were some of the most ancient inhabitants of 
Greece : but the name was not confined by historians 
to that country, nor is it accurately known how far it 
extended, or whence it arose. Learned men hiive ob-. 



316 

served a similarity between this word, and the Hebrezv- 
DuVd, Pelegim, and have supposed it of the same import. 
The dividers, or divided. 

If this, be founded in truth, we may regai'd it as a general 
name, for those descendants of Japheth, who divided the 
isles of the Gentiles. Be that, however, as it may, the 
Pelasgi seem to have brought their letters with them into 
EuropCj upon their first migration : for Eustathius, a writer 
of no mean credit, in his commentary on the second Iliad, 
V. 841, assigns it, as one reason, why the Pelasgi were 
called Aioj, Divine, because they alone, of all the Greeks, 
preserved the use of letters after the deluge. 

But, the use of the Pe/asg/cletterswas not confined to the 
proper Greeks, any more than the name of Pelasgi; for 
Orpheus, and Linus, or the priests of Thrace, are said 
to have employed them in their writings. Dio, Sic, 
L. III. 

The Pelasgic, in its original form, may, therefore, be 
regarded as the general alphabet of the j^Vs^ European na^ 
tions, and as coeval to the nations themselves. Conse- 
quently, the Attic letters, which unquestionably were the 
same as the former, have been uniformly interpreted by 
lexicographers, as meaning, A^x^ta, riaAaia, E7rt;^^w^ia, the 
old, primitive, native letters of the country. 

From the same old stock sprung, also, the first lettei*s of 
the Romans. They were called Etruscan, and were allowed 
to be the same as the Pelasgic. 

Pliny says : — '^ Vetustior autem urbe in Vaticaiio ilex, in 
qua Titulus, areis Uteris Hetruscis, religione arhorem,jam 
turn, dignam esse significavit,'' 



Q 



17 



Dion, Hal, L. IV. speaking of the column, upon which 
Servius Tullus caused his laws to be written, says, that the 
same column remained even to his time, in the temple of 
Diana, inscribed with letters, which Greece anciently used, 
namely, the Pelasgic, 

The other Greek alphabet, and which remains in use, 
had the several names of loniauj Phanician, Cadmean, 
or JEolian : and it is represented, as having been imported 
into Boeotia, by an Asiatic colony, about 1500 years 
before Christ. The Greeks call the conducter of this colony 
Cadmus, and the people, who composed it, Phoenicians ; 
but, under the former name, we may, perhaps, more pro- 
perly understand a people, called Cadnuans, from their 
foraier place of residence. That such a colony did, in fact, 
arrive, and wrought a memorable change in tlie alphabet 
of Greece, are facts, attested with so general a voice of 
antiquity, as to admit of no debate. But, of whom this 
colony consisted, and from whence it came, are circum- 
stances less evident. 

The territory of the Ti/rians, and Sidonians, was called 
Phoenicia by the later Greeks. It was the district best 
known to them by that name, and the most celebrated 
country, to which the name was applied. Consequently, 
ancient authors have acquiesced in the opinion, that 
a Theban colony came from the Tyrian coast. To this 
opinion, several of the learned moderns have subscribed, 
and have concluded these emigrants to have sprung from 
the race of the Canaajiites, 

But, though it has been a general persuasion, it has 
not been universally admitted. 



318 

Baj[:fer, in liis letter to Mi'. Gardiner, calls Cadmm, a 
Carian; and adds, — "It is a grand,, though an ancient 
mistake, that the old (pomy.i<; were Tyrians'^ Reliq. Bax^ 
P. 415. 

Had this learned antiquary assigned his reasons for the 
above assertion, his opinion might have had a more able 
support than my pen. can furnish. However, as I rather 
adopt his faith on this point, I shall offer the following 
circumstances to my readers. 

The name, Phanicia, which, perhaps, was Greek, andi 
which imported nothing more than a district^ abounding 
with palm fixes, was not applied exclusively to the territories 
of the Tyriaiis, and Sidonians, or old Canaanites, which> 
in the time of Moses, and of Cadfnus, reached no further 
Northward, than to Sidon, upon the sea coast* There wer6 
other districts of that name. 

There were two mountainous tracts, in the neighbourhood 
of each other, placed in the confines of Ionia, and Carta : 
Ttolemy calls one of them Cadmus, and the other PhceniXi 
The inhabitants of these tracts -vvere, therefore, Cadtnians^ 
and Phxnicians : The contiguity of their native residence, 
may have afforded them an opportunity of joining in the 
same expedition. 

The dialect of Thebaiis, the names of their towns^ and 
of their oldest princes, do not appear to have had more 
affinity with Tyrian, Syriac, or Hebrew, than languages 
of QtlL£r Greek states. The Baotian was a genuine branch 
of the Ionian language, which had been established in 



319 

districts^ where Cadmus, and his Phoenicians, never ob- 
tained a footing. 

The Tijrians, and Sidonians, did not claim the colo- 
lization of Baotia ; but, in conjunction with other Asiatic 
people, called its inhabitants, as well as those of the other 
Greek states, by the generic term of lones, or laones — • 
the sons of Javan, 

lE.'mistKuq ^£ *o» Bci^^x^oi rovq 'eXX>)v«<5* I^i'f? >^eyovqi. Hesych. v. \ccnx» 
Uunoiq 'ET^nvoit; lotovsq *o» Bu^Ccc^oi iy.oMvv. Schol. ad Acarn. Aristophi 
'Enoi nut rovq Q^ay-xq^ y.oci A%atoy?, xat BOIHTOYS, luviq enxT^vv. Jlesych* 

V. luVSq, 

It appears, then, that Bizotians, or Cadmus, and his 
Phoenicians, were considered as lones, and of the same 
orisiin as the other Greeks, 



'in' 



The letters, introduced into Europe, by these emigrants, 
are uniformly called lojiian. They were the same as those; 
used by the Asiatic lonians, or the Tarshish of Moses, 
Pliny asserts, that a tacit consent of nations, introduced 
the general use of Ionian letters. This can only mean the 
Cadmian, or nezv Greek characters, which became preva- 
lent, in succession, to the Pelasgic, and Etruscan. 

The letters of Cadmus have more similarity of character 
to the Pelasgic, or 'primitive letters of the Europearis, as 
they appear on the Eugubian tables, than to any copies of 
the Samaritan, or of the Tyrian letters, now extant. 

From these premises, I think, a fair inference may re- 
sult, that Cadmus, and his Phanicians, were natives of 
the country about Mount Cadmus, and Mount Phosnix, 



320 

— ^ttiat his, and their letters, were those of the lonimis, ot 
descendants from Javan, who had hitherto remained in 
Asia. The difference between these letters, and the Pe- 
lasgicj in all probability, arose from gradual operations of 
time, or from studied refinements, during the separation of 
the kindred families. 

It may be asked, in objection^ — if the colonist, who 
occupied Bceotia, was actusiWy Ionian, why do we not 
find him distinguished by that name, in preference to the 
term Phoenician ? 

It may be answered^ that, in early ages, the name of 
lonians was applied so generally to all Greeks, that it 
would have conveyed no distinct idea of a particular dis-^ 
trict, or family ; whereas_, the names of Mount Cadmus^ 
and Mount Phoenix, were of limited appropriation, which 
at once pointed out the origin, as well as the native spot of 
the new-comers. It may, further, be remarked, that En- 
Topcan Greeks, of later times, in consequence of some 
jealousies between the two countries, disliked the name of 
lones, avoided the use of it, and were unwilling to be 

called by it, '0» /aev vw aMo» lanq^ kch A^vivocioif sipvyov Tovvojxa, ou 
Qov}\oi/.syoi lunq xsjcXi^sSat. Herodot, L. I. 

Some learned men, taking it for granted, that Cadmus 
Was a SyrO'Phoenician, have laboured the point of ex- 
plaining, how the letters of Cadmus may have been fonned_^ 
upon the old Samaritan, and have insisted upon it, that all 
the names of these letters are mere imitations of the Hebrew. 
It is not, by me, denied, that a remote affinity may be 
discovered, between the two alphabets. They both de- 
scended, in my opinion, from one source, and, there- 
fore, may have retained a degree of resemblance to each 



mi 

other. But the alphabet of Cadmus does not appear to 
have been taken from the Hthrexv, or from any other^ 
which corresponded with it. In the time of Moses, who 
was cotemporary with Cadmus, the Hebrews had ah'eady 
twenty-two potestates, or letters ; the alphabet of Cadmus 
wa$_, as yet^ iii a more primitive^ and simple state; consist- 
ing only of sixteen letters; 

That narties of Greek letters are mere imitations of the 
sounds^ fonned by the Hebrew names^ or by the Tyrian, is 
a very disputable point. It appears to me^ that most of 
them are old^ and genuine_, Greek words, conveying similar 
ideas to those of the corresponding names in the Hebrezc, 
and retaining a similarity of sound_, only so far as the 
two languages had a radical connection between each 
other. I shall endeavour to render this proposition more 
clear in the sequeL 

But the identity between some,, at leasts of the Ionian 
characters^ and the Pelasgiau, or Etruscan, of the Eugubian 
tables, and the similarity of others, demonstrate, that both 
of these two alphabets have sprung from the same fountain. 
And, it should seem, that a change was not introduced at 
once, but gradually effected. In the celebrated Sigeaji in- 
scription, we discover nearly equal resemblances of the 
Pelasgian letters, and the Ionian : it was, therefore, en- 
graved, at a time, when the former were beginning to 
yield with reluctance, and the latter were insinuating 
themselves into their place. 

But it would be easier to demonstrate the original identity 
of these alphabets, than to point out, with distinct ac- 
curacy^ the changes introduced by the lornans, 

X 



322 

They do not seem to have augmented the number of the 
letters. Only sixteen are ascribed to Cadmus. The same 
number is claimed by the old Latins, by the old Germans, — • 
by the Irish, — and British Bards, 

We have not^ perhaps^ adequate remains of old inscrip- 
tions^ to ascertaia the exact compass of the Pelasgian, ot 
the Etruscan alphabet, which^ there are some authors^ who 
confine to so few as twelve, or thirteen powers ; but it is^ 
probable, that, like the Latin, — as well as other Old Eu- 
ropean alphabets, which are better known^ — it amounted, ia 
truth, to sixteen. 

Diodorus informs us, that Cadmus did not originally in« 
vent, but only changed, the figures of the letters. Yet,, 
from other circumstances, it appears probable, that the 
Greeks of Europe were also indebted equally to those 
Thebans, for a new arrangement of their letters, and for a 
new series of names. 

The order of the Ionian alphabet, accords much better 
to that of the Hebrew, and of the zi)estern Asiatics in gene- 
ral, than Runic, Irish, or the Bardic ; which latter, in 
all other respects, appears to have been a very near ally 
to the Pelasgian, or Etruscan. 

As to the names, though I have already shewn, that 
letters had, anciently, two sets of them, — specific, or the 
idea expressed by \hQ pozver, — and hieroglyphic, ox symboli- 
cal ; yet, we may suppose, that, in every particular state, 
one series of the two was more familiarly used than the 
other, and that one series only was retained, when 
the hieroglyphical origin of letters was forgotten. The 
series, by which the Ionian letters, and the Hebrew, as well 



3^3 

as the old Irish, are distinguished, is clearly the kierogli/'- 
phical. It is formed by names^ which are given to certain 
productions of art, or of nature. 

That PelasgianSj and the Tuscans, on the contrary, used 
the simple, and specific names, — like our Druids of Britain, 
— is probable, from the general affinity of their alphabets, 
and, still more so, from the following circumstance. 

The old Latins, and the Romans, in the first ages of the 
city, as I have already shewn, used the Pelasgian, or 
Etruscan characters. These were, I think, the Latin \eU 
ters ; — whose texture, Pliny says, resembled those which 
Greece had anciently used. They were laid aside, gradually, 
for the admission of a series, much the same as the Ionian, 
But the Romans neither adopted, nor imitated the names 
of the Ionian letters. They used the simple, and mono- 
syllabic names, which are to this day retained. 

It cannot be conceived, that, when they altered their 
characters, they originally devised that series of names. 
They must have preserved the names of their old letters, 
and, therefore, of the Pelasgian, ox the Etruscan characters. 
These names have, indeed, been deemed utterly destitute 
of meaning, by scholars, who would search for them in 
the Hehrezo, or Greek, or modern Latin tongue. But it 
appears to me a certain fact, that, at least, the latter of 
these languages was chiefly formed out of a dialect, very 
ancient, and very similar to that of the Cotii, or Waldenses, 
and S'coti, or Celtce of Ireland, in which, a multitude of its 
roots may even still be found. In this, and some other Celtic 
dialects, the names of the Roman letters, are all significant, 
and characteristical terms. They are full of meaning. They 

X 2 



3U 

are, also^ clearly re-echoed^ in the names which are given to 
the lots of Driiidism, or the omen sticks of Britain, 

We may venture^ then, to assert_, that,, whilst the Romans 
imitated the arrangemeiit, and characters, of the Ionian 
alphabet, they cherished, and preserved, for the most 
pait_, the simple, and the original names of their national 
letters ; viz. the Arcadian, or Pelasgian, of Evander, the 
same as the Etruscan, the Celtic, and primitive letters of 
Europe, 

With such names, perhaps^ all nations had been once ac* 
quainted* Even the Hebrew alphabet is not without simple 
names, corresponding to the marked, and specific ones of 
the Pelasgian, or Bardic alphabet ; as He, in the Pe- 
lasgian, or Bardic, E, which denotes, in Celtic, that 
person, that thing, as the Hebrew, ^<>^ ; Pe, — in the Bardic, 
Pi, — a beak, or sharp point, — as the Hebrew HD. 

The names of some letters, in the modern Greek alpha- 
bet, prove, that this people had known letters of different 
powers, distinguished by simple names. T must have been 
called Upsilon, slender U, in contradiction to that broad 
U, which is found in the Roman, the Pelasgian, the Irish, 
the Bardic, and the Runic alphabets ; — but not in the Ionian. 

So again : removing from Epsilon, Upsilon, Omicron, 
and Omega, the epithet Psilon, Micron, and Mega, which 
constitute no part of the real names, we discover the sim- 
ple enuntiations of the vocal pov^ers, — E, O, U, as in the 
Pelasgian, Roman, and Bardic alphabets. 

It remains, to shew the correspondence of the Pelasgian, 
as well as the Ionian, with Druidical alphabets, as far as 

may demonstrate their couniion origin-. 



3^5 

A comparison between the names and characters, of al- 
most every power, in the Bardic, and Pelasgian, would, 
of itself, terminate all debate respecting their original iden- 
tity. Such is their similarity, that it could not well have 
been produced without an actual intercourse between the 
several people, by whom tliose powers were used. That 
intercourse is acknowledged also to have taken place. 

The Hyperboreans (or Druids) repaired regularly to the 
banks of the Peneus, in Thessaly, to worship their Deity, 
Apollo. JElian. Far. Hist. L. III. C. i. 

We may hazard, without fear, the conjecture, that votaries, 
like these, carried wdth them a knowledge of Driiidical syra- 
hols, or lots, wherever they w^ent. Yet it may not follow, 
or admit of proof, that, of course, they introduced them into 
the heart of Greece. Their creed of religion must have 
had some analogy to that of the people, in whose temples 
they worshipped. The Pelasgia^i priest of the Cabiri, as 
well as our Druids, professed a vigilant care of primitive 
opinions, and of primitive institutes, — derived, and well au- 
thenticated, from the ark. Even their name could, with 
some probability, be well traced in the Celtic ; for cabar, 
is Si confederacy ; — cabartha, united ; — -cabhair, help, aid; 
cabhair-am, I help, assist, relieve. Shazv. Be that, as it 
may, we can have no doubt that Ptlasgian priests used 
Pelasgian letters. 

The use of these Pelasgian letters has been ascribed expressly 
to the Bard, or priest of Thrace. Diodorus, L. III. observes, 
that Linus wrote a history of the acts of the elder Diony^ 
Sfis, and other mijthological tracts, in Ptlasgian letters, 
and that Orpheus made use of the same. 



Q 



26 



Under the name of Orpheus, the fanciful Greeks appear 
to have described an ancient order of Priest s, called Or- 
pheans, who dealt in ST/mboIs, and who traversed great part 
of the habitable earthy to instruct the world in divine mys- 
teries. They were not only poets, and skilled in harmony, 
but theologists, and prophets ; they were also very knov^ing 
in medicine, — and in the history of the heavens. Orpheus^ 
in HolweFs MythoL Diet, 

Thrace appears to have borrowed from them, one principal 
doctrine of Druidism, which prevailed as late as the time 
of Mela, the geographer, not as the dogma of a solitary 
philosopher^ but as a national persuasion. 

^^ Alii redituras putant animas obeuntium ; — alii, etsi non 
redeant non extingui tamen, sed ad beatiora transire. 

L. n. c. ii. 

Our J)r?/2Ws taught, that souls, after being purified by their 
transmigration, attained a condition of endless felicity. 

In short, it appears, — from the whole account which has been 
traced of this order, — that Orpheans were Druids, or Druids 
Orpheans. Both orders having sprung from one stock, 
they were, perhaps, in their uncorrupted state, equally the 
repositories of primitive arts, and primitive opinions. 
These orders, in various countries, appear to have had not 
only a marked and general resemblance, but also a more 
familiar intercourse, and a more actual communication^ 
than has been commonly supposed. 

The dance of trees, to the music of the Orphean harp, 
may have been an allegory^ of the same import, as Talie^ 



JPlateJlFui: 







^/kV.W:V>^^:AV,0-AH/,<t>. 
l!^AA--|I4/INVVkA. 

^-^^ tT:kF.inhn ' 

^^-4^ l^ B < C-C G-t P r R P.-O 

f.n^-{ K k::> t>A D:4^3 ^RF^ N n 





t^<K>KkWHOMNrrtVY 

^»i<i;i/imMOirrtv 

><1;^.^Wl/|01lirV4' 



327 

$m*s device^ of arming the symbolical trees, or letters, ancl 
bringing them into the field of battle. 

The Greeks have no tradition of any writings,, known in 
their country^ anterior to those of Thracian Bards. To 
them, we ought^ therefore^ to ascribe the first puhlicatiort 
of the Pelasgian, and the Etruscan letters, — not their in- 
vention, — but their introduction into popular use. 

The names of these letters, — retained by the Romans, — 
and their characters^ copied from inscriptions, of uncertain 
date, prove, indisputably, their common origin, with letters 
of British Bards. In No. VIII. of the annexed plate, 
they are exhibited, at one view, together. The first line 
is formed of Bardic lots ; — the second has been selected from 
De Gehelin, and from Astle's Etruscan alphabets ; — a third, 
from the inscriptions of the sepulchral grottos at Corneto, 
as they were engraved for the Gentleman's Magazine of 
June, 1779. 

Most of the Pelasgian, or Etruscan letters have been re* 
versed, because they were taken from inscriptions, which 
had been written, from right to left. The old Greeks, and 
the Italians, wrote both ways. 

It is now, perhaps, no improper stage of the discussion, to 
examine the origin, or solution of the testimony given us by 
Xenophon, and by Archilochus, which has been cited by 
Bucher — viz. '^ that the characters which Cadmus introduced 
into Greece, were more similar to the Gaulish, than to 
the Funic, or Phcenician letters." 

From what has been stated, I assume it as a just infer- 
ence, that ancient Gaulish characters, intimated by these 
authors, were, in general, the same as the Bardic letters^ 



328 

already exhibited. Before I compare them with Cadmean 
characters,, or those of the modern Greek, it rnay not be 
improper to contemplate^ with a retrospect^ those principles^, 
and that system^ upon which they were constructed. 

Being originally intended as draughts^ or sketches^ of the 
points, or sprigs, or knots of plants, it is to be remarked, 
that simple, and radical characters, represent either a straight 
rod, — di forked sprig, — a rod, with a single shoot branching 
from it, — or a simple knot o?i a twig ; as No. I. PI. ii. 

The fork, or the shoot, always branches off, and with 
an acute angle 5 the knot breaks the line, with an ob- 
tuse angle. In these particulars, the copy is taken from 
the model of nature. 

The characters of those compound powers, which are 
now classed amongst the radicals, are formed by the junc- 
tion of two simples: as M from B U, O from A U, 
No. II. 

Derivatives, or mutations, are accomplished, by adding 
to their primitives, another shoot, or, else, mutes are changed 
into their affinities, the semi-vowels, and the aspirates, by 
affixing a reed, whose perforation was the symbol of breath^. 
ing ; as in No. III. 

Thus, a fundamental principle is preserved throughout, 
with great simplicity, and regularity. 

In the Ionian characters of Greece, and of Rome, few 
vestiges of system, or of homogeneous connection pre- 
sent themselves, at the first view ; and yet, upon mature con- 
sideration, their general analogy, to characters of the 



■ 329 

Bardic is perceived. And the evidence of inscrip- 
tions, the farther we ascend backwards into antiquity, 
amounts to absolute proof, that most , of the difference, 
which now appears between them, is due to the changes 
which took place in Greek, and Roman letters. The 
more ancient we find the several specunens, the nearer we 
discover their approach to the Bardic sprigs. The reason 
is clear. The letters of the more learned people were mn- 
stantly employed. The taste of the age, and study of ex- 
pedition, produced their daily effect, in altering ^Ae lines; — 
but the letters of the Celtce formed an object of supcr^ 
stition; — it was their chief study to commemorate the 
images. 

I shall now exhibit proofs of relation between these al^ 
phabets. 

1. Several of the respective characters retain so much 
resemblance of shape, that an original identity is evident, 
at the first view ; as in No. IV. 

2. In other instances, the Ionian series merely opens 
the angles of the Bardic sprigs, into right angles ; as at 

No. V. 

3. Sometimes they merely soften the angles into curves ; 
as in No. VI. 

Thus it appears, that the draught of the Bardic, and 
Ionian letters, was, originally, the same, and that, accord- 
ing to the authority, cited by Bucher, Cadmus's let- 
ters resembled the Gaulish, more than Punic, or Phoeni- 
cian, Similar characters had anciently been used in Greece, 



^^ 



330 

Thrace, Italy, and other countries; but Xenophon, and 
Archilochas, named them after the people, by whom theu 
were still retained. 

The systematical correspondence of the characters in 
the Bardic, with a general principle, — as well as the evi- 
dence of ancient inscriptions, — gives the palm of antiquity 
in their favour, and the decision is further supported by 
a very marked feature. 

Several Greek, and Roman characters, do not correspond 
with Celtic radicals, but with some of their derivatives, or 
mutations. Thus, No. VII. from the Celtic B, comes itsde* 
rivative Bh, or V, by a shoot, in addition to its primitive, 
as observed before : hence were formed Greek, and Roman 
B, by curving the shoots. From the Celtic C. (K) comes 
ck guttural, by affixing a reed, and this is precisely the 
K of Greece, From the Celtic D, comes Dh, (as Th in that) 
by affixing a reed, as before ; hence the Greek A, and the 
Roman D, by curving the angular line. From the Celtic 
E, comes e, hence the ancient 3 reversed, of Greece, and 
of Italy, by opening the angles, and by adding a shoot. 
From P, comes Ph, or F, by the addition of a shoot, as 
before, — hence the Roman F, and Molic digamma, as it has 
been called. From the same P, comes the mutation Fh, 
by affixing a reed, and hence our present Greek n. 

From the evidence, adduced in this work, I hope it is 
made clear, that the old alphabets, which I have now com- 
^ pared, were originally one and the same, which had been 
imported into Europe, by several of the emigrating fa- 
milies, who had settled in this western continent ; — that 
our Druids, and Bards of the Celtcz, preserved an authen- 
tic, and respectable copy of this general alphabet, and that 



331 

principles^ upon which it was constructed^ were known in 
primitive ages^ before the nations were separated. 

It must^ then^ he inferred^, that such principles were 
known to the ancestors of the Chaldeans, — the Israelites, — 
and the Phoenicians, As far as any thing can be demon- 
strated,, by the terms^ and metaphors of language, the fact 
has been ascertained. 

May I, therefore, hope to be indulged, in a short search, 
after some links of original union, between the European 
alphabets, and these of the xvestern Asiatic ? 

But first, I would observe, that long before the date of 
any legible inscription, which has reached our age, the 
Asiatics had begun to enlarge the range of the fancy, to 
improve, or diversify the arts, and materially to extend the 
limits of science. 

The paintings of their figurative language had also ac- 
quired a magnificence, which the earlier nations of Europe 
could never have attained. ^ 

As a necessary consequence of this, it might be expected, 
that our oldest copies of their alphabets would be 
more copious, in the number of their letters, and more 
complex in their principles, than alphabets, traced from 
our more simple ancestors. 

Accordingly, we find the Hebrew alphabet, in the time 
of Moses, already possessed of tzoenty-two powers, when 
the European, for a long time after, had but sixteen, at 
the most, and, perhaps, only thirteen. 



332 

The learned have generally regarded the names of the 
Hebrezi) letters, which corresponded with Chaldean, and 
Fhaniciaii, as terms of significance^ conveying ideas^ not 
only of the characters themselves^ and of their elementary 
powers, but also of certain productions in the field of na- 
ture or of art ; as aleph, an ox ;—beth, a house ; — gimel, a 
camel ; — daleth, a door, &c. And it has been the opinion 
of some very eminent scholars, that characters of these 
letters were, originally, intended for sketches of those ob- 
jects, (or of their characteristical parts,) after which they 
were named. 

Of the original characters in the Hebrew letters, we 
cannot speak positively. The Chaldaic square characters 
were preceded by the old Samaritan, and, in some copies 
of this alphabet, we discover such plain drafts of certain 
quadrupeds, advancing, and retreating, that the design 
cannot be mistaken. See the Jod, and Tsade, Durct, 
P. 324; Le Ckbert, P. 517 ; Fry's Pantog. P.2ig. 

The opinion, therefore, that the old Asiatic letters were 
drafts of certain objects, cannot be entirely fanciful ; and 
the inference will be, that such letters possessed, in part, 
at least, the nature of hieroglyphics, or general symbols, 
like those of the Celtcb ,•— and were intended, equally to 
convey certain ideas, besides their elementary powers in 
language. 

But, though each of the Chaldaic, Samaritan, or Phce- 
nician characters, may have originally represented some 
object, 5'et no* copy of them, which is known at present, 
enables us to say that all of them can be described, or un- 
derstood, as representing objects of iany one class. Thgy 
are not uniform drafts of animals, — of plants, — or of pro- 



333 

ditctions hy art. They are of a mixed nattire, and can- 
not be^ with precision^ traced from any one homogeneous 
plan^ or system. 

May it not be, then, presumed, that Asiatics not only had 
augmented the number of their letters, but also had made 
some innovations in the series of primitive symbols ? Of 
their, ancient knowledge in symbolical leaves, and sprigs, — 
the terms, and metaphors of their languages give most un- 
equivocal evidence, and proof. 

The names of the Hebrew, and Chaldaic letters evidently 
connect their alphabets, with Greek, and with Irish ; as, 



Aleph 


Alpha 


Ailim 


Beth 


Beta 


Beith 


Heth 


Eta 


Eadha 


lod 


Iota 


Idho 


Nun 


Nun 


Nion 


Resh 


Rho 


Ruis, &c 



Are the Irish names, then, to be descendants from tlie 
Hebrtzv ? — By no means. They are borrowed from no 
foreign language. The words are purely Irish, and are 
taken from one homogeneous series of symbolical plants. 

As for the Hebrezv names, they are intelhgible terms in 
the Hebrew language. They point out very different ob- 
jects, fi'om those, which are pointed out by similar, and cor- 
responding names, in the Irish ; but this difference^ may 
be solved, upon a fundamental principle of language. 

All names, described, originally, a particular mode of 
existing, or of acting. 



334 

They conveyed the leading ideas, which may generally 
be collected from their verbs : and, when appropriated, so 
as to denote things, impressed those leading ideas, respecting 
the several objects to which they were applied. 

It will be shewn, hereafter, that, upon this principle, the 
Irish names unite with corresponding terms, in Hebrew, 
and Greek, This union of the import, conveyed by similar 
sounds, in the names of the letters, demonstrates to me the 
original identity of the languages, and of the conceptions 
entertained by , the several nations, respecting their ele- 
mentary characters, or symbols of sounds. 

The various applications of the Asiatic terms, may have 
supplied them with an opportunity of selecting a more or- 
namental series for their symbots^.^ In support of that 
system, which is formed of sprigs j it^must, however, be 
observed, that it is more simple, and more harmonious, 
in its parts, than we can allow that of the Chaldeans, or 
Hebrezos to be, which is prompted by the characters, and 
the received interpretation of the names which are given to 
their letters. It must also have been more ancient. 

Whatever cause introduced the other series, it must have 
operated at a more advanced period of society, when men 
were already in the habit of delineating, or engraving 
their symbols, not of applying them in their natural state. 
For, it is evident, that Asiatic symbols were not adapted, 
originally, to the same primitive mode of application, as 
the symbols, that were Druidical. 

The Sage of Druidism could express, or convey his 
ideas, by a mere sprig of the Jir, the birch, the ivy, and 
the oak, arranged upon a string. A Chaldean, or the an- 
cient Hcbrezv, could not, so conveniently, do the same. 



335 

hy the head of an ox, — the end of a house, the head, or 
7ieck of a camel, — and the leaf, or screen of a door. This, 
more costly,, and magnificent, series, was impracticable, 
without recourse to delineation, or the art of engraving, — 
a comparatively modern, and recent practice. 

It was designed, originally, for delineation ; and having 
been suggested, by the various applications of terms, in 
some ancient dialect, it was probably adopted, for the pur- 
pose of decorating public edifices, with inscriptions of 
sculpture. 

It appears, then, to have been an ambitious refinement, 
upon a simple, and primitive system, which has evident 
vestiges of it, in the terms, and the metaphors of the East* 
trn languages themselves. 

But, if the series of symbols was changed, — its mode of 
application improved, — and scale enlarged ; yet, the art of 
writing amongst the nations, appears to have sprung, 
and flowed from one source. The symbols, and letters, 
which are locally used, have more analogy to each other, 
than such as can be attributed, with justice, or common sense, 
to mere chance. This analogy points out an original identity 
in the art of writing, in whatever stage of rudeness, or per- 
fection, we now find it ; and further demonstrates, that it is 
not the work of independent genius in various countries, 
but the remains of a 'general system. At the same time, 
there is, on the other hand, so much local peculiarity in 
the elements of this art, and in the manner of using them, 
that we cannot suppose it was borrowed from any one peo- 
ple, after its attainment of perfect maturity. 

The inference^ from the whole, is, manifest^ and clear, that 



355 

lit simj)le rudiments^ this important art existed amongst tli€* 
common parents of mankind, — and_, from them, it came to 
the several famihes of the earth. When the first prin- 
ciples of it were known, different countries may have made 
their separate improvements upon them, or may havCj, 
occasionally, availed themselves of those, which had been 
modelled by their neighbours. 

As the most ancient people of Europe we^e less ambi- 
tious of improvement, and were more studious of prc^ 
serving, unimpaired, w hat they possessed, than Asia's more 
celebrated inhabitants ; — as the alphabet of Druidism, 
which is related nearly to the Pelasgia?i, or Etrtiscdnj is, 
in its fundamental principles, in its radical characters, in 
its primitive use, and in all its properties, more simple, and 
more homotonous, than we find those of the Oriental na^ 
tions, who were, confessedly, the first that innovated upon 
these primitive arts ; — I can scarce hesitate in yielding to 
the force of such evidence, and concluding, that our an- 
cestors, in the western continent, have presented us with 
a most authentic transcript of the general alphabet employed 
by the Noachidie, 

It will be said, that arts, like these, travelled from the 
East, — This I am ready to concede. They came from that 
country, which was the cradle of the nations. 

I have not ascribed the ijivention of written speech to the 
West. In this particular instance, I ask no more than 
credit for a general maxim : — that, whatever ancient arts^ 
have been retained by a people, comparatively simple, and 
uncultivated, have been subject, necessarily, to fewer 
changes, than are made in the seats of luxury and refinement. 
And these, who may disallow my inferences, will be ready to 



337 

admit that Asiatics were the first who extended the limits 
of the arts and sciences, derived from the family of Noak, 
and_, through them, from the antediluvians. They were, 
therefore, the first who innovated on primitive systems, and 
who obhterated that impression of respect, which the in- 
stitutes of their fathers claimed, in honour to their anti- 
quity. 

Our very learning has led us into error, upon the sub- 
jects of ancient history. It has tempted us to look for the 
rudiments of the arts, at those, to whom we are only in- 
debted, for improvements, and for alterations^ 

"V^^ilst the sacred orders of men, amongst the less re- 
fined states of Europe, revered, and carefully cherished, 
the usages of the early ages, Greece, more polished, and, 
the Romans, from them, eagerly embraced the improve- 
ments, and the innovations o( Asiatic refinement, — gave com- 
plete credence to the idle boast of their vanity, — and made it 
an honour, to borrow of nations, who vaunted of an antiquity, 
far beyond the real epoch of the world's creation :— they 
despised, they neglected, and almost forgot those primitive 
institutions, and simple rudiments of science, which had 
been the just pride of their own progenitors. 

With antiquities of their own country, these more cele-^ 
brated nations, in the meridian of their learning, and 
power, were but little acquainted. To the Phaniciaus, and 
Egyptians, their acknowledgments were certainly due, for 
enlarging their sphere of knowledge ; but their gratitude ex- 
ceeded all modest bounds. They began, by degrees, to regard 
their instnictors, as the original inventors of arts, and the 
fir^t communicators of science. Modern Europe^ ia like 

V 



$3S 

manner, indebted, as it is, to the arts, and muses, of 
Greece, and Rome, for much of its learning, has too im» 
plicitly adopted th^ir opinions, 



It maybe expected, that I should here take some notice 
of two species, in written language, which have generally 
been considered, as totally distinct from the use of ele* 
mentary alphabets. I mean^ the Chinese characters, and 
the Bgyptian hierogh/phics, I hope that my short remarks 
upon these topics, which h.ave neither been the subject of 
my immediate studies, nor have much connection with my 
general plan, will be accepted with candour, as mere grounds 
of conjecture,' 

The characters of the Chinese have no elementary con-» 
nection with a language of that people, — and books, writ- 
ten in these characters_, may be read in several languages. 
Their appearance has impressed me with a notion, that, ori-* 
ginally, they were nothing but monograms of a poly^ 
$yllabic language, very different from that of the Chinese, and 
that the keys, or radical parU of these characters^ which 
constantly preserve a relation to the same leading ideas, 
whatever adventitious touches they have adopted, were 
pionogranis of primitive words, which admit of prepositions, 
of terminations, and of other ^ords, in composition, 

The C/iinese, as I learn from Dr. Hager, have preserved 
some remains, and much tradition, of an earlier series in 
characters more complex, representing natural, or artificial 
objects, like the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians. The 
people, who supplied their monograms, may have had 
letters, designed after such objects, — as in the old SamarU 
tan alphabet, already inentioned, 



339 

When I recollect the original scheme upon which let- 
ters were formed^ — the early, and primitive nature of their 
characters, viewed as drafts of certain ihi?igs, — and the 
general ideas conveyed by their names, — it occurs to me, 
that, in their first conceptions, they must have approached 
the description of hieroglyphics. 

On the other hand, I cannot help imagining, that 
Egyptian hieroglyphics must have possessed analogy tp 
the nature of letters ; that, in other words, they were sym*' 
bols of ideasy connected with elementary sounds, or with 
primitive J and simple terms of the Egyptian language, and 
that elaborate sculptures on the monuments of Egypt, were 
not occasioned by the rudeness of her priest, in the art of 
writing, but rather by ostentatious parade, and pretence of 
mystery, 

Apuleius, Metam. L. 11. speaking of his initiation into 
the mysteries of Isis, informs us, ^^ that he, (the hiero- 
phant) drew out certain books, from the repositories of the 
sanctuary, which contained the words of the sacred for^ 
mula, compendiously expressed, ^txxx\yhj figures of animals, 
and partly by certain marks, or notes, intricately knotted, 
revolving in the manner of a wheel, and crowded together, 
and curled inward, like the tendrils of a vine, so as to iude 

THE MEANING FROM THE CURIOSITY OF THE PROFANE." 

This, was not their practice, for zeant of the knowledge 
of letters, but was their studied perversion of the alphabet^ 
in its proper, and simple use. 

The letters of the ancient Egyptians, like those of the 
Hebrews, and of several other nations, may have been distin- 



340 

guished by names, which, primarily, expressed leading 
ideas, and, at the same time, were appropriated also to a 
variety of objects, in which those leading ideas presented 
themselves. In this case, the term could be represented, 
by the figm'e of either of the objects to which it was applied. 

Let us, for example, suppose, that the letter B was 
called Bai, and that such a term primarily imported, being, 
or existing. 

We are told, that Bai, was the Bgyptian denomination 
for a branch of th.e palm-tree, and that this tree was an-^ 
ciently regarded as an emblem of being, existence, or zwz- 
mortal it I/. 

Again '.—Horapollo says, ^' Bat, signified a hazilc, the 
soul, and the wind [anima] ; therefore, the Egyptians used 
the hazvk, as a symbol for the soul'^ 

The word is written Bais, in the Nomenclatura Egyptiaco 
'—Arabica, published by Kircher. Dr, Woide follows Kir^ 
cher; but, in the Lexicon C opt ico-Gr cecum, in the Biblio- 
theque da Roi, at Paris, we find, Cat, Bat, species aliqua 
accipitrum ; and the same occurs in C alius, L. IV. C. id. 
Opinantur Egyptii animae conceptum esse cor; qua ra- 
tione, cum accipitris nomine indicari animam putent; 
illam, vocabulo gentilitio, Qa.i%^, Bai-eth nuncupant, quod 
animam signat et cor : siquidem^ Bai, anima est ; ethj, 
yerh, corJ^ 

Gen. Vallency. Mon. at Lusk, 
Transact, of the R. I. Acad. 1788, 

A delineation of a sprig of the palm-tree, or of the hawk's 



341 

figure might, then be used, indifferently, to represent the term 
Bai, its leading image, — and its various appropriations; — 
In writing the Egyptian language, either of these figures 
might represent the letter B, zchich zvas known hy the 
same description. 

The Hebrew particle 1, denotes presence, or existence, 
in any given time, place, or condition, — and the name of 
the letter, rv3, signifies 2l house, abode, ox place of being, 
unless it be formed out of a more ancient, and simple term, 
— 'D, Bi, or Bai, 

The Greeks called the palm-branch> Baiov, or Baig: and 
fi»}Ta, or BaiTa, (the letter B) preserves the sound of the 
Hebrezv Beth, or the Egyptian Bai ; but the idea of the 
name, in Greek, may be collected from C=-^a»-o&>, to co7tfirm, 
establish, ox place in a permanent state of existence* 

The Latins called this letter Be, nearly the simple name 
of the Bai, or symbolical palm-branch. And Be, in the 
Celtic, conveys the same leading idea of existence. Irish, 
Be, is the term for life ; Cornish, signifies Be, cm, art, 
is, — existent* 

The country of the Druids produced no palm-trees. In 
order, therefore, to make their system entire, and preserve 
it, they found it necessary to substitute another plant, for 
this ancient emblem of being, or immortality. They fixed 
upon the birch. 

Perhaps it was a supposed coincidence of character, be- 
tween this tree and the palm, that gave occasion to its Latin 
name, Betula, q. d. the little B«», or Bmr, 



34s • 

In the Celtic of Ireland, the birch is called heith^ whicli 
equally signifies being, essence, existeiice. It seems to be 
connected with Ir. Both, Bothan ; W, Bwth, (pi. B^th) 
ia hutj. cottage ; Booth, a place of abode, or being, equiva* 
lent in its meaning, to the Hebrezv nO. 

in Welsh^ Bi^th also signifies^ for ever, eternity. 

The birch, ihexe^ore, in the Celtic language, being distin- 
guished by a term, which, primarily, imports, being, or exist' 
ence, was constituted the symbol of the term, and of the idea 
which it conveyed. It also became the symbol of the letter 
B, represented by a sjprig of this plant ^ — and the reason 
Was clearly this, — that the power of that letter, connected 
with its Vocal breathing, conveyed the same general idea as 
Beith, by which the birch was delineated. 

In the Bardic alphabet, this letter is called Bi, which, in 
Irish, implies the sense of the Latin fuii ; in Welsh, that 
of the tiatiJi erit : in both languages, it is the root of tl^ 
essential verb, to Be. 

Recollecting these principles of the symbolical system, we 
may infer, that, in the rude, and primitive language, Bi, 
Be, or Bai, and even the very power of B, when incor- 
porated in the simple terms of the first ages, was to con-» 
vey the idea of being, or existence, — and that, in the dialects 
which ciame, as branches, from that language, its deriTatives 
no, Batov, Ba».:, Beith, Both, Bn)th, Bi/th, &c. became terms 
appropriate i'or place ofbeitig — for the self-propagating ^??t A, 
' — for the immortal palm, — for an eternal duration, &c. 

Such terms, and the general idea which they attrjvcted, 
might be represented, with equal propriety, by the sketch 



^43 

cf a house,— tis in the Hehrezo n, — by the palm-hrancJi of the 
Egyptians, — or by theiir figure of a hawk, — by the birch-sprig 
of Druidical symbols, — by a draught of that sprig, — as in 
the Bardic alphabet, — or, indeed, by objects in general, 
viewed, under the same character, and expressed by the 
same, or a congenial term* 

Thus, different objects, in different Countries^ might 
become the symbols of the same idea, and of the same 
elementary sound, — the hieroglyphics of Egypt may have 
been connected with Egyptian letters, — just as Druidical 
symbols were connected with Celtic language. 

The Egyptian priest, either from vanity, — or supersti- 
tion, — or to restore the veil of mystery which the popular 
use of letters had, in part, removed, may have devised a 
new and magnificent series of symbols, founded upon the 
same principle as that of the simple, and primitive charac- 
ters, — but which could only be read, w^here his language 
was understood. 

If I have touched upon these abstruse topics, it has been 
so briefly, that I may, perhaps, be pardoned by the liberal, 
and benevolent critic. 



ESS^Y 

ON THB 

CELTIC LANGUAGE: 

IN WHICH 

ITS RADICAL PRINCIPLES, ARE APPRECIATED AND 
COMPARED WITH 

PRIMITIVES, AND SIMPLE TERMS, 
IN 

HEBREW, GREEK, and LATIN, 



347 



Sect. L — Subject proposed. On the principle of natural 
expression, or the relation betzveen certain sounds^ and 
certain ideas ^ 



XN the former essay, I gave my opinion,, supported by 
the evidence upon which it was formed "that an order known 
by the name of Druids, to the latest period of their esta- 
blishment, preserved a respectable copy of an alphabet, 
which the earliest of those tribes, which had settled in 
Europe, brought with them out of Asia. I also explained 
the account, which those Druids left in Britain, respecting 
the original, and fundamental principles of this alphabet. 
I added, that a similar account is partly recognised by other 
primitive nations. 

But the importance of the discovery is not limited only to 
these facts. It acquires its principal value, from the 
opportunity it affords, of illustrating an ancient system in 
philology : viz. That each of the elementary somids in lan^ 
guage, naturally descinbes a distinct image, or perception 
of the mind, and that language was, originally, formed, 
by following nature as the guide, in adapting sounds like 
these, to their several, and respective occasions. 

That such Druidical symbols, — and the series of letters, 
which arose from them, — were intended, both to support that 
system, and explain its principles in detail, — appears, by the 
following testimonies. 

1. Taliesin Sc?ys, — with a reference to the whole device of 
the symbols, — 



348 

A*m swynysei Math^ 
Cyn bum diaered. 

'^ I had been marked by Kindf 
Before I became immortal/' 

And again : — ^' The points of the mimic trees, what do 
they whisper so forcibly, and what breathings are in theJr 
roots ? — These are read by the sages." 

In another place : — ^When the removal took place, I was 
marked by the chi^f, amongst the multitude of the arts of 
the sages, — imitators of nature" 

If NATURE marked, or pointed out the several plants, as 
appropriate symbols of speech^ and of its elements ;--\i to 
them she assigned the office, and province of composing, 
and oi analizing languages, it is evident, that every element 
of language, was understood, in those days, to have a distinct 
character, ^narked, andjixed by nature * 

Upon this ground, the same Bard separately describes 
the genius, disposition, or action of the symbols, — evidently 
implying the: force, or the import, which their correspond- 
ing powers were understood then to possess, in the forma* 
tion of language. 

2» Trees, and plants, that are selected as the symbols/-^ 
present obvious, and very natural characters : they suggest 
the same ideas, which are marked in the descriptions of the 
Bard, 

3. The names, by which these plants, — considered as the 
st/mbols, — are distinguished in the Irish language, — are 



349 

calculated for the impression of these ideas, in the most 
forcible manner. 

4. The simple names of the Bardic letters, or counter^ 
feited sprigs, are amongst the most important, as well as 

discriminate roots of the Welsh, and the Irish languages. 
They are at the head of numerous families ; — ^they confirm 
the descriptions of Taliesin, — the hints presented by the 
natural characters of those plants, — and the import of the 
Irish names. 

5. The application of that system is to he supported by 
evidence, taken from other languages, in which no collusion 
can be suspected. 

6. The names of the Roman letters, are terms of IvnowTi 
value, in the language of the Celtce, — and of an import simi- 
lar to the names of the Bardic letters Many also of Greek, 
and most of the Hebrew, or Chaldaic letters, have expli- 
cable names, which may be referred, with ease, to certain 
verbs, expressing parallel ideas to the names for the corres- 
ponding letters, and symbols of the Celtce. A manifest in- 
timation, that one, and the same identical system was 
known, and was taught, not only in Greece, or in Italy; 
but in Syria, and Chaldea. 

7. An application of these principles, and system, to 
the radical terms of the Celtic, Latin, Greek, or Hebrew 
language, is found, in most instances, truly to define their 
meaning, so as to ascertain the original principles, from 
which these languages arose, and prove that the system is 
l^ot founded upon ancient opinion alone, — but upon truths 



350 

To explain^ — and verify,, these particulars, will be the busi« 
ness of the following essay. 



In a former part of this woik, I enumerated some pro* 
perties of the Celtic language, which point out the general 
practicability of constructing an elementary alphabet upon 
a system of general symbols. In other words, I remarked 
the paucity, and the extreme simplicity of radical words ; 
— the general, as well as the obvious ideas conveyed by 
them — and the acknowledgment of .a natural affinity be- 
tween the simple elements of language, and the ideas they 
were to convey. 

The two former particulars, I shall have occasion to ex- 
emplify in the sequel of the essay ; — but, singly, to the latter, 
I appropriate the remainder of this present section, — because 
some ancient schools, and modern wTiters, have denied the 
existence of any such principle, as natural expression, or 
the relation between ideas, and sounds. 

In the few books, which accident has thrown in my way, 
the negative has been supported by the following arguments. 

1 . It has been observed, as a datum, that, nations, different 
in language, describe the same object by different words, 
and by different elements of sound. It has been further 
contended, — that no such diversity could have taken place, 
Jiad language, in general, been formed upon a natural ana- 
logy, between ideas, and sounds, 

2. It has been additionally observed, — that mankind, and 
a certain species of birds, are capable of learning foreign 



351 

sounds, and foreign terms^ by imitation; but that such 
attainments are acquired with extreme difficulty. Hence,' 
it has been concluded, rather hastily, that sounds, being 
purely imitative, avud being acquired by the ear, our several 
voices, and their several articulations can have no primary, 
or natural connection with appropriate ideas ; — that primi* 
tive man could have had no impulse to express a distinct 
perception of the mind, by one articulate so*ind, more than 
by another; that, consequently, the rudiments of language 
must have been arbitrary, selected by chance, and fixed by 
compact alone, 

3. From this mode of reasoning, an hypothesis arose, that 
man was, originally, destitute of all speech, and that he 
laboured, for a series of ages, to acquire the difficult art of 
articulation, Avhich he collected, by degrees, from the voices 
of certain animals, and from the sounds that bodies pro- 
duced, in motion, or in collision. 

4. To confirm this hypothesis, I have seen it urged, that, 
even at this day, there are several nations of savages, or of 
vien in a wild state of nature, who have not learnt the 
power to articulate. 

In order to make an end of the debate, by indisputable 
facts, the particular case of two savage men, has been pro-» 
duced, and strenuously insisted upon. One such being was 
found, in a forest of Saxony, another, in a deserted wood in 
France, They were so remote from acquisition, or natural 
speech, that, after they were introduced into society, they 
could not even be taught the power to articulate. *^ Shall 
it be, after this, pretended, that man, found in a state of 
nature, hadan^ language at all!'' 



352 

5. Remarks^ not unlike these, have been extended even 
Ito the feathered race. I have read, that a male bird has 
taken a convenient station, before the nest, in full view 
of the young brood, having purposed teaching them his 
power of song, by lessons, adapted partly to their several 
capacities, and partly to their degrees of application ; — that, 
in general, the talents of the young birds open, at a very 
tender age ; but that, if they be removed from the nest im- 
mediately after they are hatched, they never acquire the 
song of the parent at all. This has furnished an argument, 
that even the songs of birds, are not inspired by natural 
instinct, but acquired by the ear alone, and by observation 
upon the manner in which the sounds are produced. 

These are the chief arguments against natural expression, 
which occur to my recollection. I shall offer something in 
reply to them all. 

The various terms, by which the different languages ex- 
press the same thing, may be partly solved, by the different 
modes of inflection, of composition, or of contraction ; ' 
which custom has introduced into local dialects, and by 
which, the same radical word has been so diversified, that its* 
identity cannot be immediately recognised. I shall give 
an instance of this, in the term for my mother's son. 

Lot. frater; Ital, fratello ; French, frere ; Eng, bro- 
ther ; Germ, bruder ; Gneld. bruyr ; Belg, broeder ; Goth, 
brothar ; Dan. Brodre ; Swed. broder ; Welsh, brawd ; 
Corn, bredar; ^?7?2or. breur; Irish, brathair ; Manks, 
breyrj Rubs, brate ; Sclav, and FoL brat; Dalmat, brath; 
Fiusat. bradt ; Bohem. bradr. 

This term undergoes twenty changes, corresponding to 



353 

the genius of the several dialects ; yet^ it preserves, through-^ 
out, evident vestiges of some one oiiginal word. Not 
presuming to determine what that word is, or was, I shall 
only observe, that in more than one Ce/^zc dialect, bru, sig- 
nifies a womb ; Ad, — iteration, repetition of the same ; and 
«r, — a man, Bruad, then, is an offspring, or produce of 
the same womb ; and bruadur, a man, produced by the 
same womb» 

But, according to my conception of the subject, a more 
fmitful source of the diversity in terms, must be. explored 
in the original nature of all tenns, which is relative, or de- 
scriptive,— not fixed, or absolute. And, for this reason it is, 
that, not only a difference of dialects, but one, and the same, 
dialect, may have great variety of names for the same 
thing ; when it may be viewed under a variety of relative 
characters. Thus, a son, in Irish, is called mac^ which is 
a nu?'sling, from the word macam, I sustain, or support. 
This is equivalent, in its meaning, to the Latin alumnus: 
bar, a shoot, or offspring ; propago : ore, a germ, or seed ; 
progenies: luan, a small one, from lu, small ^ parvulus : 
7iio7i, an linage, or likeness, &c. 

Had five distinct families, been separated from the 
Irish nation, — had they colonised as many desart islands, 
in which their posterity retained only one of these terms, 
and apphed it in the same absolute manner as we do the 
word son, — it is evident, that, in this instance, the new in- 
habitants would no longer be able to recognise the relative, 
or descriptive, nature of these words, — or the original iden* 
tity of their several dialects. 

This example is not singular. In the same language, 

z 



354 

there are ten words for a hoy ; — upwards of twenty, for a 
kill, or mountain ; — and as great a variety, for almost every 
object, which an unrefined people, were likely to have con- 
templated ; but each of them describes a distinct relation, 
or character J of that which it names. 

We cannot, therefore, adduce the diversity of terms, as 
an argument against the first principle of natural expression, 
and the original identity of languages, — till we have con- 
sidered these terms, in the relative, and the descriptive 
capacity, not in the Jixed, and the absolute. 

That mankind have an aptitude, and favourite impulse, 
to learn sounds by the ear, is readily admitted. It is a sub- 
ject of daily observation. The infant thus acquires the 
language of its nurse, as the youth does that of the fo- 
reigner. The dialect of a nation thus becomes general, 
throughout the several families. 

It is further admitted, that a mode of articulation, which 
is acquired by the infant, appears, for ever afterwards, the 
most natural, and the most easy to us ; whilst the sounds 
taught at a more advanced age, are practised with com- 
parative difficulty. 

By the ear, and frequent efforts, some have learned:-^ 

*— — ^' Nquidas avium toces imitarier oreJ* 

to utter sounds with ease, and fluency, that would be found 
impracticable, upon the first attempt. — Some kinds of birds, 
On the contrary, have imitated the songs of the other spe- 
cies, or the articulation of the human voice. 



355 

But this does not militate against my first principki 
which is, that we have an original propensity, born with 
us, to express, and communicate, certain perceptions, bf 
ideas, by appropriate sounds: — that such perceptions, and 
sou?ids, have, therefore, a natural relation betzveen each 
other. 

This propensity may have been guide enoUgh to the an^ 
cestors of the race, in the formation of their simple voca* 
biliary ; and that it was, in fact, I think, is demonstrable. 

The operation of this principle is perceptible still, in the 
simple, and primitive terms, of most languages ; and, as 
far as we can ascertain the local inflections, combinations, in 
contraction, we can, so far, trace its vestiges, into the 
main body of languages* 

The voice of nature has not been entirely silenced, or su* 
perseded, by imitative accomplishments. Would Signor 
Rossig7iol wish to communicate an idea, to his audience, he 
would immediately, and at once, drop the language of the 
nightingale, or blackbird, and have recourse to that of the 
society, in which he is placed. Siiould he have broken 
his fiddle, or torn his ruffle, he would, probably, discard 
the foreign language, and would bewail his misfortune, in 
his native dialect. Were the same person affected with 
surprise, grossly affronted, or exposed, on a sudden, to 
violent pain : — were the boy that prepares his negus, to 
have spilt some of the boiling water upon his foot, he would, 
in a moment, quit the Italian, would forget all his learn* 
ing, and would express his agonies, in the language of na- 
ture, that is, in such tones, inteijections, or exclamations, 
as would be equally understood, by the -^^hole species, 

z 2 



<5 



56 



This language of nature^ we daily distinguish^ in the 
lones_, and warbles of the infant^, expressing its various per-» 
ceptions_, or emotions, before it has learned either to imi- 
tate, or comprehend the import of our terms. We also 
perceive it, in the tones, and in the exclamations, which 
passion, or any violent impulse extorts, from the deaf, and 
the dumb. 

From a misconception of principles, respecting the ori- 
ginal nature of language, mistaken opinions have arisen, 
concerning its introduction into society. If mankind had 
no predisposing impulse, to communicate their perceptions 
of things, and of their several relations, by natural, and by 
oral signs; — if they could have possessed no rudiments of 
language, till they had agreed upon certain arbitrary terms; 
— till they had even digested these terms, into noun, verb, 
B.nd paj'ticle, with all the accompaniments of number, de- 
clefision, tense, mood, and person; were this true, it is 
equally certain, that such creatures must not only have re- 
mained, for ages, without the use of speech: they must 
have continued so, to this day, and forever. Could we ad- 
mit the possibility, that men should acquire the faculty of 
speech, by mere compact, or studied mechanism ; why 
must it be supposed, they had recourse to the voices of ani- 
mals, or the sounds of inanimate things ? 

*' Because, we are told, it is by no means natural for 
fnan to articulate : it is an art zehich he acquires zvith dif^ 
ficulty, and imitation aloneP 

But, as brutes are thus elevated into the first masters of 
language, let us ask, who taught the first lion to roar, tha, 
first bull to bellow, and the first lark to sing? shall it be 
said, that God^ or nature, endowed the first generation of 



357 

brutes, with all their various languages, impressed an apti- 
tude upon them, to utter certain perceptions, by their cor-» 
responding sounds, and that he denied all such predisposing 
aptitudes to man alone ^ 

Something of this kind seems to be intimated, when I am 
told, that nations of savages, or of men in a state of 
nature, have not yet surmounted the difficulty of pronounc- 
ing several consonants. However conclusive such an ar^ 
gument may appear, to some philosophers, I confess, that 
for one, I cannot perceive its force, or grant the assump- 
tion, that savage life, is a natural state, or, that extreme 
depravity, and the ultimate perfection of the human crea- 
ture, can be one and the same thing. A natura'l state is 
that which affords the best and fairest opportunity, foj a 
display of the discriminative character, of this or that 
species : and the characteristic of man, is r$a,sQn, ot com- 
mon sense. The condition, which affords the best and fair^ 
est opportunity for the exercise of this endowment, ia the 
natural and perfect state of man. Examine that plant !-^-it 
grows in its propev soil, and congenial aspect. There it 
will be found in its natural state. From that state, it may 
be equally removed, if pampered in a hotrbed, or starved 
in a cold steril earth, So man departs as widely from his 
nature, by the path of rudeness and brutality, as by tliat of 
luxury and refinement. His intellectual, and his organic 
faculties, may be infinitely debased, below the intention 
^nd standard of nature. 

If this be the situation of savages, I can acknowledge no 
more force, in the argument before us, than in that of a 
philopher, who should reason with me thus. ^^ Infants, 
who have not acquired the power of erecting themselves, 
jind some cripples, whp have lost that power, crawl upoa 



358 

4:heir hands and feet; therefore it cannot be natural for man 
io be upright. 

But^ as great stress has been laid upon the case of two 
savages^ — ^the Saxon, and French, it may not be improper to 
bestow some attention upon their story. They are described 
as having been deserted^ in the forests^ by some accident, 
in their earliest infancy. When found_, they had almost 
attained manhood. They had lived unconnected with so- 
ciety, and consequently, had formed their habits, with a 
perfect independence of its controul. They were taught, — ' 
by their masters,— to sit, stand, and walk upon two feet; but 
their favorite gait, was quadrupedal. They could nei- 
ther speak, at first, nor be taught, afterwards, to articulate. 
Hence it has been inferred, that man can have no primitive 
language, and that all articulation is, with difficulty ac- 
quired, even by the ear. 

If the facts, as they are stated, are true, the conse- 
quences, drawn from them, will not follow. An unpro- 
tected infant, exposed alone to the horrors of a forest, 
could only have acquired sufficient language, to express the 
ideas, which arose from his insulated situation. What 
could the wretched being have to utter, more than a pierc» 
ing cry of distress, groans of anguish^ or screams of terror, 
and growls of rage ? Even these, he had no opportunity, 
and, therefore, could have bad no incitement, ever to com^ 
municate amongst others of his own species. When deprived 
of his usual range, and confined amongst men^ he had still 
his inveterate, and savage, habits about him, which it was im- 
possible for him to overcome. He could not, therefore, 
have been disposed, by habits, to acquire the language of 
society. His case must have been widely different, from 
tb?it of the first parents, whose dawn of existence was in 



359 

the society of each other^ in the enjoyment of happiness^ la- 
the full possession of all their bodily^ and of all their intel- 
lectual, faculties, unexercised, indeed, but mature, and per* 
feet, and with every possible aptitude for exercise. They 
were endowed with a native impulse, which directed all 
their powers to their proper end, — ^and taey had no savage 
habits to overcome. 

Such a distinction ought, unquestionably, to be made, 
could we give implicit, and full, credence to the facts, re-* 
lated of these two savages. But these facts demand a very 
eerious reconsideration. Common sense has a voice, more 
persuasive than is that of a hundred philosophers. In this 
instance, do we not hear it rebuke us, for drawing such nu- 
gatory inferences, from absolute impossibilities? Is it not 
the postulatum, a ridiculous absurdity, that an infant, de-» 
serted in a German, or French forest, before it acquired 
any ideas of- articulation, and consequently, before it could 
walk, or stand upon its feet, ever did, or ever could support 
its own existence? But did 7iot a she wolf condescend once 
to nurse Romulus, and Remits^ might not a she zcolf have 
killed the mother of this child, arid then hate taken com-f 
passion upon the helpless orphan^ Let one absurdity be al- 
lowed the commodious privilege of resting upon ajiother ! 
yet, in a very few months, the milk of the wolf must have 
dried up, and the foster child have been abandoned, by force, 
to the necessity of providing for its own sustenance, was the 
infant then, arrived at a competent age, to follow the oc* 
cupation of its nurse, to hunt for its daily food, and brave 
the horrors of the approaching winter ? As all this appears 
to me an utter impossibility, I suppose, that, if there be 
not some philosophical fraud in their history, these two 
savages, notwithstanding their near approach to the human 
ibrm, were half brutes, the ofl^pring of abomination. \i\ 



360 

their habits, they seem to have resembled the ape^ more 
than human creatures. 

The observation of the fact,, that a parent bird instructs the 
nestlings how to sing, is elegant, and ingenious. I would, 
by no means, dispute its authenticity ; yet I cannot admit 
of the consequences which have been drawn from it, in 
their full exterl. It proves only, that particular modifica- 
tions of sound, are most readily acquired by the ear, and by 
observing the manner in wiiich they are produced. It 
will not follow, that such are the 07ily sources of the vocal 
expression, either in the human, or brute creation. Some 
indisputable testimonies of the reverse, may be adduced. 

A cock, hatched under a duck, crows like his father. 
Ducks, hatched under a hen, spontaneously acquire the 
voices, as well as the habits of their own species. A cuckoo, 
hatched in the nest of a hedge-sparrow, will disregard the 
language, and the habits of his nurse, but will attach himself 
to those of his parasitical parents. A lamb, taken from the 
body of its dying mother, and uniformly nursed by the 
hand, will yet bleat like another lamb. 

Though voices of animals be circumscribed within a 
narrow compass, yet they have some variety of tones, and 
sounds, by which they express, and communicate, amongst 
others of their own kind, the perceptions of anger, plea-f 
surcj fear, confidence, zvant, satisfaction, &c. And it is 
evident, from the foregoing instances, that they acquire 
names of this kind spontaneously, or from an impulse of 
nature, without effort, or imitation. 

In like manner, an infant, almost as soon as it is born^ 
begins to express its feelings, in the language of naturCa; 



361 

without having heard the similar cry of another child^ and, 
in a few months^ long before it has made any efforts, to 
learn, or imitate, the language of social compact, it can 
inform an attentive nurse, by its tones, and warblings, 
whether it is angry, or pleased, in pain, or at ease. 

It is, therefore, clear, that an utterance of particular 
sounds, adapted, by their nature, to their proper occasions, 
whether, by the human^ or brute creation, is not invaria- 
bly, acquired by the ear, and produced by an imitation of 
similar tones ; but may arise, from certain aptitudes, which 
God, by the laws of nature, has implanted in the several de- 
scriptions of his creatures, for the communication of their 
perceptions amongst one another, 

Were it practicable to seclude a couple of children, — as an 
Egyptian tyrant is said to have done, — without suffering 
them to hear the voice of man, or animal, it cannot be 
doubted, but they would acquire the use of oral signs, 
which they would mutually understand. 

It is not pretended, by me, that Hebrew would be their lan- 
guage, — as it has been imagined by some ; — but they would 
surely acquire a few simple notes, to express, intelligibly, 
the general sensation excited in them, by objects that prC" 
sented themselves, or by emotions of their own minds. 

Could their lives be kept up to nine centuries, — like those 
of the first linguist,— they would unavoidably extend their 
vocabulary, and would improve their grammar, so far as to 
have a copious provision of definite, and proper terms, for 
the most famihar objects, and a power to communicate 
ideas of the most obvious forms in existence, or in actions ; 



56^ 

and from such rudiments^ a language^ of considerable 
compass, would arise, in a few generations. 

In such a tongue, mutual compact would obviously have 
much to do ; but its ground-work would be laid, in the natu- 
ral, and the untaught, principle, which disposes men, and 
brutes, to utter their voices, in certain tones, or modifica- 
tions, analogous to their various perceptions, and emotions. 

The operation of this principle, upon the human voice, 
may, at once, be perceived. Joy, fea?', pain, love, anger, 
and all the passions, have their appropriate, and sponta- 
neous tones, which are discriminately comprehended, not 
only by persons of a different language, but, in some de- 
gree, by the intellect of brutes. Our dogs, and horses, 
know, by our tones, whether we are angry, or satisfied, 
menace, or applaud, — check, or encourage them. 

It will, perhaps, be conceded, that our spontaneous 
tones are naturally expressive, — and that properties 
of die vozvehy are evidently connected with them. But, 
it will be urged, that no such impulse extends to the arti- 
culation of the consonant. There are many, who will not 
either discard, or abjure, the opinion, that every new articu- 
lation is artificial, and of difficult acquisition. 

To this oracle, I think, we may oppose an argument of 
considerable weight, as drawn from the general perception 
of an affinity, between one sound, and one sense, in com- 
positions, both ancient, and modern. 

In all ages, and countries, men of an accurate ear, and a 
fine tast€^ — ^\vhether learned, or illiterate, — have acknow- 



363 

ledged, and Mt, such an affinity^ in the works of their 
poets^ and orators. 

It must, in trnth, be perceived^ in fact, by those who deny 
it in theory. 

Of this correspondence, — ^the most admired, and sagacious 
critics upon Homer, Virgil, Milton, and many others, 
furnish us with copious examples. They all acknowledge 
it, as a source of beauty, and of energy^ in the works of these 
masters, — though few of them have carried their speculations 
so far, as to develop the element, or principle, from which 
it arises. 

It cannot be ascribed, 'implicitly, or entirely, to an arti- 
ficial arrangement of daclyls, and spondets ; for it will 
frequently burst upon us, in the midst of a line, consisting 
of pure Iambics. It is perceived in prose compositions, 
and in single words. It must, therefore, be rooted in the 
powers of the letters, — in the choice of elementary sounds, 
which have some peculiarity of relation to the intended 
idea. And, if a combination of sounds, possesses a de^ 
scriptive energy, the elements, and principles of descrip- 
tion must exist, in the individual sounds. A multiplica^ 
tion of mere cyphers, never can produce an efficient 
sum. 

The perception of such relations, is not an artificial sense, 
resulting from the labours of critics, and of rhetoricians. 

I never yet knew that schoolboy, who possessed one spark 
of genius, that was not immediately reused, by the ma- 
gical power of descriptive sounds^ in reading Ovid, or 



364 

Virgil, and who did not, by the iinhnated efforts of his 
voice, mark himself a native critic. 

He that has any taste for composition in his own tongue, 
perceives the natm'al expression of szctetness, or asperity, 
ddicacy, or sublimit y, in hearing a just recital of any verses, 
in a foreign language. Tliis perception of correspond- 
ence, between sounds, and ideas, — wdiich is the same, in 
the learned, and illiterate, — must be natural, and spon- 
taneous. 

That arrangement, and movement, have great effect in 
displaying the power of sound, is very certain ; but they 
are not equal to all that is required. A line, in which the 
powers of E, I, B, L, "N, are predominate, can, by no 
management of the Caesura, or disposition of poetic mea- 
sure, describe the thundring crash, or a shock of arms, 
half so forcibly, as if the powers of J, 0, U, R, G, M, 
P, T, prevailed. 

Most languages, indeed, retain so much the expression of 
nature, that it would be difficult for us to select words, upon 
which the experiment could be made. If, on the other 
hand, this last combination of sounds, were to paint what 
is little, soft, smooth, or delicate, the expression w^ould be 
ridiculous, and burlesque. 

, If, then, certain vocal, and articulate sounds, arranged 
in words, and sentences, describe certain ideas, with 
more effect, and propriety, than others ; we must infer, 
that, in their ow^n simple nature, they have some peculiar, 
and marked relation, to such ideas. This relation, being 
founded in principles of nature, must have produced an 



565 

aptitude, in the first contrivers of language, to accommo- 
date the sound, and the sense. 

That I may not insist^ at present, upon the vocal sounds,, 
which are supposed^ in general, to have obvious connection 
with to7ies of the voice^, — we may convince ourselves, by 
experiment, of the accuracy that is to be found in this de- 
duction^ as it respects the powers of the consonants. Cer^ 
tain actions will he found, of course, to generatCy sponta- 
neously, their corresponding articulations. 

In the art of catching at, or touching an object, that is 
not fairly within reach, — or of holding a large body^ with 
arms at their utmost extent, — vre ask — do we not;, amongst 
other efforts, to exert our whole power_, spontaneously, and 
forcibly^ ^PPb' ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ tongue to the palate, in a fit 
situation^ to utter the hard sound of C, or K, which is 
actually produced^ every time that breath if forced out, as 
long as the effort continues I 

So, in hugging a substance within the arms, and, as it 
were, forcibly adhering to it, we acquire additional power, 
by a position of the tongue in the same situation : — but, as 
this action is of a less protrusive nature, breath is not pro- 
pelled with new force, — and the sound of the hard G is pro- 
duced. 

During efforts to push heavy bodies before us, or to make 
our way, and thrust ourselves forward, in spite of opposi- 
tion, we naturally collect the air into the lungs, as an internal 
support : we, unconciously, endeavour to derive all possible 
aid from its elasticity, by giving it the full range of the 
mouth. The cheeks are inflated, and the lips pressed to- 
gether^ with intense compression of breath, adapted, with 



366 

force, to express the articulation of P. And, as often as 
breath escapes, during the violence of exertion, it will 
burst forth, with no articulation but this. 

Again: — In tugging^ or drawing a line forcibly, the 
tongue is applied firmly, and spontaneously, to the fore 
part of the palate, or the upper gums, to force out a vehe- 
ment articulation of T, 

All this proceeds, not from study, and imitation, but 
from the pure impulse of nature. 

Let us observe a man, exerting bis whole force, in ehhet 
of these actions : — let him even be dumb, or w^ho has no op* 
portunity of learning sounds by the ear, — and we shall per- 
ceive a natural aptitude, in such a person, to accompany 
the effort with its corresponding articulation. Nay, if the 
by-standers be at all interested in the event, the impression 
will be communicated at once to their whole frame ; their 
organs of speech will be continually, but unconsciously, 
catchingj grasping, pushing, or tugging* 

Let us imagine one of the first race, whom we can sup- 
pose to have been hitherto without use of speech, w^ishing 
to communicate an idea of these exertions, to a person 
who had been absent. He w^ould, undoubtedly, use ges- 
tures ;— but the aim, and the intent of these, would be de* 
scription. 

In the first instance, he would put forth his hand to its 
utmost extent, as in the art of catching, or touching, an 
object, high, or distant : or he would extend both arms, to 
mimic the act of holding of a bulky substance ; — the very 
attitude of exertion, w^ould bring the organs of speech to 



367 

the corresponding situation^ — and the hard sound of C, or 
K, would be emphatically uttered. 

In a description of grasping, or hugging^ the arms would 
he firmly deposited before the breast^ and drawn inwards ; 
the lips would fly open spontaneously^ and the tongue 
cleave to the palate, until the hard power of G was pro- 
duced. 

To communicate an idea o^ pushing, the body would be 
placed in an inclining posture ; — the hands protruded^ the 
lips pressed together^ and forced outwards, as in the very 
act of the impulse described, — and the ^?{^wg' sound of F, 
would be uttered. 

An idea of tension woxild be expressed, by extending the 
hand, closing the fingers, as in laying hold of a line, and 
drawing the body backwards. At the same instant, the 
tongue would be applied spontaneously, as a fulcrum, to 
the upper gums, and, whilst the hand is drawn forcibly in- 
wards, the tugging articulation of T would be expressed. 

Whilst breath escapes, in either of these energetic arti- 
culations, a kind of vocal sound must arise ; it will be 
somewhat like the short obscure E, before R, in final 
syllables; so as to form Ke, Ghe, Pe, and Te, which 
may, therefore, be regarded as primitive, or natural 
words. 

To those who contend, that mankind, at first, commu- 
tiicated their ideas onli/ hy gestureSj I would recommend 
the reflection, that gestures must have been efforts to dc^ 
scribe, and that such an expedient as that of placing the 
organs in situations, that would produce, infallibly, the 



368 

corresponding sounds^ naturally accompanied actual exer- 
tions, and, therefore, must have heen essential parts of 
those very gestures, or descriptions. It must follow, that 
rudiments of ai^ticulate language., are founded in princi- 
ples of nature. 

Men want only original hints for the invention of all arts. 
Those corresponding sounds would soon have obtruded 
themselves upon the notice of the first parents, — ^liave super- 
seded the use of elaborate gestures, — and have become the 
current medium, for the reciprocal communication of their 
ideas. 

The force, and the eii^pression, of the other letters, I 
shall have occasion to examine hereafter. The articulations 
of C, G, P, and r, have been classed, amongst the more 
difficult, and less obvious. What I have said of them will 
suffice, to shew, that a faculty of articulating may be 
natural, — and that sounds may have appropriate relations to 
the ideas, which the mind intends to convey. 

All expressions of the human voice, — the modulative, — 
the vocal, — or the articulate, are not, therefore, as many have 
supposed, mere imitations of that which has been heard, — 
or uhconnected with ideas of things, and of their na- 
tural affinities. 

There are sounds, naturally descriptive. They are 
produced unconsciously, by the various impressions that are 
felt, and are calculated for communicating the same im- 
pressions, to those who hear them. As they undoubtedly 
entered into the root of t\iQ first language, they retain their 
places, more, or less, in the various dialects, which ha^e 
branched from this original stem. 



S69 

In the cultivation of dialects, through all their stages, 
this principle has, for many centuries, been overlooked, 
and its traces, have, in some degree> been obliterated* In- 
flections, — mutations, — and other novel terms, have re- 
ceived the sanction of custom3 and the authority of gram- 
marians, without the least practical reference to the voice 
of nature. Still the vital principle itself is perceived, and 
is acknowledged by authors, and by readers who are blessed 
with an accuracy of taste. It may be remarked, in the un- 
solicited expressions, which accompany our natural efforts, 
or emotions, — and in the radical vv^ords of most languages* 

The opinion which 1 have thus maintained, has nothing 
at all new in it. The very same doctrine appears to have 
been the general persuasion of remote antiquity, and was 
never shaken, till the history of man was abused by fable, 
and their maxims confused by philosophical quibbles. 

The Egyptians are acknowledged by all to have carried 
minute inquiry, founded on experiments, to as high a pitch, 
as any inhabitants of the ancient world* 

Amongst them, an original formation of language^ from 
spontaneous, and fcom natural sounds, was received as a 
general axiom, from which there could be no appeal. This 
appears, from an experiment, made, by a king of Egypt, 
for the purpose of determining the comparative antiquity 
of the nation he governed. Two infants, zoho, from the 
birth, had not been suffered once to hear the voice of 
man, at the end oftzvo years, uttered spontaneously a term, 
which, in Phrygian, signified bread. From this incident, 
the Egyptians concluded, that Phrygian was the most an- 
cient language. 

A a 



370 

Whatever objections may be urged against the mechanism 
of the term bekj, and the abstract idea of bread, the ex- 
periment, as it was conducted, and as it was determined, 
proves, at least, the estabhshed opinion of the Egyptians, 
upon this topic,— ^that an original, or primary language 
of man was founded in spontaneous expressions, and that 
a people, who were the most ancient, or unmixed, would 
retain such a language. 

Tliis, too, was the persuasion of the Platonic school : 
and it was known to the Romans. P. NigidiuSy a cele- 
brated grammarian, — regarded natural expression as the 
root of language. 

That information we owe to A. Gellius, L. X. C. iv. 
where, after giving several examples, the author adds, — 
^' Ita, in his vocibus, quasi Gestus quidam oris, et spiritus 
naturalis est. Eadem ratio est, in Grcecis quoque vocibus, 
quam esse in nostris animadvertimus.^* 

Amongst the modei*ns, many learned men, who distin* 
guished themselves, by their deep researches into the 
origin of language, have acknowledged, and main- 
tainecj principles of natural expression : particularly Des 
Brosses, in his Traite de la Formation Mechaniqne des 
Langues,—Sind Wallis, in his Grammar of the English 
Language. 

From the whole of these premises, I would infer, that 
our primitive order of Druids, and their successors, thet 
Bards of Britain, are not chargeable with absurdity, in 
retaining this, with many other persuasions of antiquity, 
* — in laying down this principle of natural, spontaneous, or 
descriptive expression, and in maintaining, that first rudi- 



371 

ments of language neither consisted of terms^ arbitrarily 
imposed, nor of such, as were the result of studious observe 
ation, and philosophical inquiries, but of such, as arose, 
from laws better ascertained, and more universal, — the lazes 
ef nature itself. 

The formation of language, considered in the abstract^ 
is a surprising phenomenon. It will, however, appear ac- 
comitabhy if not obvious, by admitting the operation of 
this principle. But, without any such principle in our 
nature, the acquisition of speech must have been impossible 
to man. 

Till we have recourse to this principle, etymology will 
rest upon nothing. We may unravel compounds, or 
derivatives, till we arrive at certain terms, which are enigma- 
tical, and whose precise, or primary import^ cannot be sa- 
tisfactorily explained. 

But, let us once admit natural expression, etymology 
will then, like every other legitimate science, rest upon a 
solid ground. We shall be guided through all the various 
inflections of language, back to nature itself; to that pri- 
mordial impression, made, by the hand of the first mover, 
and, consequently, as far as true philosophy durst advance. 

As the various passions, movements, and perceptions of 
the mind, without study, or forethought, predispose the hu- 
man frame, to assume their peculiar attitudes, and impress 
upon the countenance, their peculiar character, which com* 
municatej very distinct ideas to the beholder ; so they dispose 
the organs of speech, to assume their peculiar attitudes, 
productive, necessarily, of corresponding sounds, and arti- 

A a 2 



S72 

culations, which, in like manner, naturally commtinicate 
very distinct ideas to the hearer. 

And, though such a natural character of sounds be de- 
faced, and weakened, by the refinement, or the corruption 
of language, yet is it not obliterated. The organs of 
speech, in many instances, can still point out a relation be- 
tween the ideas we are desirous to express, and corresponding 
sounds, which areas fairly subjects of discrimination to the 
philologist, as the external characters of the passions are to 
the painter. 



373 



Sect. II. On the formation of language, Nature of the 
primitive language, 

X. O the preceding disquisition, upon the nature of ele- 
mentary sounds, I shall add a few thoughts respecting the 
formation of speech, the nature of primitive language, 
and the sense, in which it may he said even still to 
exist. 

That wonderful phenomenon, in the history of man, the 
organization of language, has attracted the notice of the 
learned, and the ingenious. It has given birth to various 
hypotheses, which are supported by an elaborate profusion 
of reading, and by acute observations. 

There are some, for instance, who regarding language as 
entirely of human invention, suppose, as I have already re- 
marked, that man borrowed his vocal, and articulate sounds, 
from various animals, and from the noise of inanimate things, 
— For this reason, they tell us, the letters, which are 
the symbols of those sounds, derive their names, and cha- 
racters, from the things, to which we owe their several 
powers*. This opinion I have already discussed, and, I 
hope, refuted. 

Many, of great learning, on the other hand, maintain, 
that the Hebrew j or some very similar language, was 
communicated by inspiration to our first parents, complete, 
in all its parts. 

♦ See Rdiq. Bax. P. 401. 



374 

A tliird class^ take a middle course between these two 
opinions^ and contend,, that man was impressed with an 
aptitude by nature, to mark^ and report express ideas^ and 
perceptions, by appropriate sounds ; but that he was left en- 
tirely to his own choice, in the application of these principles, 
as in the natural use of his hands, feet, or any other organs. 

To this opinion, I rather assent ; though, perhaps, there 
may be something peculiar in my view of the subject, and 
my plan of reasoning upon it. 

But, lest I should w^ander in theory, I will first con- 
sider the fact, as recorded by a writer, whose periods 
never drop idly from his pen. In the very compendious 
account of the first age, where nothing is admitted that 
i^ not of the highest importance, Moses thus details the 
origin of language. 

^' And the Lord God said. It is not good that man should 
be alone ; I will make him an help meet for him. And, 
out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the 
field, a»d every fowl of the air, and brought them unto 
Adam, to see what he would call them* Atid, zchatsoever 
Adam called every living creature, that zvas the name 
thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the 
fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field ; but for 
Adam, there was not found an help meet for him/' Gen, 
ii. 1§, &c. 

It was undoubtedly intended, that this passage should be 
received, in the obvious, and plain sense of the narrative^ 
with all its attendant circumstances. 

The first thing to be remarked is, the tiine when Adam 



375 

began to form liis language. It was htfore the creation of 
Eve, whilst^ as yet, there was not found an help meet for 
the man. There could not, consequently, have been a 
tacit compact in the first rudiments of speech. 

It is pre-supposed, that Adam had a dispositio/i to trt/ 
and exercise his oral powers. The creatures were not brought 
to him, to see zvhether he would name them, or not, but 
to see what he would call them. He had, then, a disposition 
to call them by some names. 

That such names had not been communiated previously 
to him, is evident. The creatures were brought to the 
man, to see what he would call them. Adam 
gave them names ; and", whatsoever Adam called every 
hving creature, that teas the name thereof 

The man is repeatedly represented, as 2^ free agent, in 
the choice of his terms, and the historian seems to have 
taken particular care, that it should be so understood. 

His maker had implanted principles in the man, which 
the occasion called forth into action, as his own feelings 
prompted, or his judgment prescribed. It may have been 
rendered necessary to be thus particular in the record, for 
the purpose of obviating some ancient superstition, respect^ 
ing a sacred language. 

Adam^s motive, to exercise his organs of speech, upon 
the present occasion, is intimated, by other parts of 
the narrative, to have been the implanted love of so- 
ciety. '' It in not good that man should be alone,'* &q. 

When the man saw creatures, endowed^ like himself. 



376 

both with hfe^ and vohmtary motion, pass in review before 
him/ the social character of his disposition prompted him to 
attract their attention, by visible, and by audible signs ; — 
he carried his efforts of this kind so far, as to call each of 
them, by appropriate names ; but their inferior powers, 
after all, had left the conviction, that he had not amongst 
them, a meet associate. 

Thus far we are guided by the sacred historian ; but 
now the difficulty commences — what kind of names could 
have been given, by a man, who was not previously fur- 
nished with a language, — and, in what sense could these 
names have been appropriate I 

They could not have been mere combinations of elemen- 
tary sounds, conceived at random, and accidentally dis^ 
tributed, one to the elephant, another to the lion, a third, 
given to the cow, and a fourth to the sheep. Though Adam 
should have modulated his inexperienced organs, and so as to 
utter a multitude of such fortuitous combinations, yet they 
would have been sounds without meaning. They could 
have left no distinct impressions upon his own mind, nor 
could they aptly communicate such impression to others. 
They would, therefore, have been forgotten, soon aftei? 
they had been imposed. 

Neither could the names, given by Adam, have been sci- 
entinc, and classical terms of a zoologist. He was neither 
an expert linguist, nor any thing like a natural historian.. 
The animals presented, were such as he had' never seen, and 
of whom he had never heard. He had experience of no 
other kinds, to which they might be compared. He knew 
absolutely nothing of them beyond the ideas, under whicU 



377 

they had presented themselves to his mind, at the moment, 
through the medium of the senses. And, as the human race, 
as yet, centered in himself, alone, the design of his words 
must have heen rather to express, than to communicate. 

These names must, then, have heen simply descriptive 
terms for obvious, and general ideas, excited immediately, 
and suited, naturally, to the inexperience of the nomenclator. 

He could have struck out no abstract ideas of any animal 
whatsoever ; but he could observe their several motions, 
their comparative bulk, or littleness, — their gentle, or awe- 
ful aspects, — their pleasing, or disagreeable shapes ; and, 
for these obvious perceptions, nature itself could supply 
him with descriptive terms. Those terms would not only 
attach themselves to the memory, but would present 
apposite ideas, or images, to those who might afterwards 
hear them. 

Of some animals, he may have imitated the voices, and 
such imitations might become their names. But this rule 
could not have been general. 

We may, therefore, contemplate primitive man, as prompt- 
ed by the innate predilection of taste for social enjoyments, 
to detain, in his company, those living creatures, which had 
already received their being. 

To attract their notice, and conciliate their good will, 
he addressed himself to them, severally, by descriptive 
gestures. These efforts called forth the hitherto, latent 
powers of his nature. The organs of speech, moved in 
unison, and produced their corresponding articulations, 
unless where this exertion was saved by a simple 



378 

repetition of the voices which they uttered ; and thus it 
was that the names of the famiUar objects were acquired, 
and the solid ground-work of human language, laid upon 
the basis of natural principles. 

At the moment that human societi/ commenced, man 
was already in possession of language, which, therefore, 
could not possibly have originated in a tacit compact: 
though it be admitted, that a compact of this, or of a similar 
nature, has much to do, in regulating the copious dialects 
of cultivated life. From these dialects, the original speech 
of man's first parents must have differed widely, in its com- 
pass, and structure. 

Language being only a medium for the expression, and 
communication of human ideas, and sensations, can be no 
further necessary, than as it is conducive to these ends. 
And as all human societies, however simple, and rude, 
possess language enough to communicate their usual range 
of ideas, — but no more, — we may, of course, presume that 
such was the case with Adam^ 

The compass of his language could only have been com- 
mensurate with his occasions for speech. His memory can- 
not have been encumberd with a multitude of terms, to which 
he could attach no meaning. To what kind of terms could 
his inexperience have attached meanings ? It is not pretended 
that he was instructed in philosophical mysteries. He could, 
then, have had no terms which primarily expressed any sci- 
entific, or philosophical ideas. 

The numerous arts of civil life were yet undiscovered. 
The various occupations, and employments of men^ in so- 
ciety, which might have demanded their several terms, and 
phrases, were, not q^ yet, known. There were no public 



379 

transactions, — no traffic between man and man, — no ac^ 
counts of things, or events,— remote in time, or in place, — no 
traditions of customs, and of usages, upon which our first 
parents could have discoursed. Without ideas of such things, 
tliey could not have devised proper terms to express them ; 
nor could such terms have been divinely communicated ; for 
the Almighty never taught man to utter unmeaning words. 
They were surrounded by the works of nature, but with 
none of therrij could they have been further acquainted, 
than as they perceived them by their senses. Whatever 
intellectual powers enriched their capacity, their knowledge, 
— as human beings, must have been the child of experience, 
and its growth must have been gradual. 

The original speech of mankind must, therefore, have 
been extremely simple. It must have been limited, exclu- 
sively, to a few terms, and of these, to such as primarily 
expressed the most obvious ideas, or sensations. . Its words 
must have been of the simplest kind. 

Sounds naturally expressing ideas, men would first under- 
stand the power of simple tones, before they began to form 
artificial combinations. 

The fundamental truth of this reasoning, is attested by the 
original structure of all the languages that are known. All 
the native terms of the most copious amongst them, may 
be reduced_, perhaps, to less than a thousand primitive 
terms, of the most obvious import, and the simplest 
form. The more ancient, and pure any language is, 
the fewer, and the more simple arc its primitives. It is 
therefore evident, that, although some dialects have in- 
dulged in partial contractions, the general progress has been 



580 

from the paucity, and simplicity of terms^ to copiousness^ 
and artificial combination. 

A curious problem would still remain, as to the manner, 
in which the first class of terms conveyed infoimation ; or 
the rank which they would claim to hold, in the modern 
grammar. 

The ancients, in general, regarded verbs, as the roots, or 
primitives of language ; but most of our modern philolo- 
gists, declare themselves in favour of nouns, as the basis of 
human language. And, in the passage I have quoted above, 
Moses gives no hints of any human words, that w ere prior to 
the names of animals. 

It cannot be imagined, that first essays in language 
could possess anything so artificial as ouj' verbs. Men could 
not, at once, have modified their words, by discriminating 
all the times, and circumstances, of being; or acti?ig. Yet 
their nouns must have been something more than such arbi- 
trary terms, as might name, without describing their 
appropriate objects. 

Man had erected a shed, as a 'defence from the sun, and 
rain, before the orders of architecture were known; and 
he had begun speech, before principles of grammar were 
developed. 

His first words, probably, would not have admitted 
of an arrangement, under our classes. They had 
more general properties, and carried nearly the 
sense of the verbal, or participial nouns. ^ They 
presented an image of a thing, by its mode of 
existence, or operation. They marked the form, or 



381 

the relatioiiy hy which the object had presented itself to 
the senses. 

From terms, descriptive thus of leading ideas, the dis^ 
criminate classes of the words, in organized language, 
would flow ; and without multiplying, or diversifying terms, 
the acquisition of substantives, of adjectives, verbs, or 
participles, -would become naturally obvious. 

The same descriptive term would suit its meaning to the 
occasion, and would assume the character of a nounj or a 
verb J as the circumstances would require. 

For example, the simple articulation Ke, produced na- 
turally, and spontaneously, by an effort, either to catchy 
touch, or hold, would naturally describe an object, which had 
been observed in these actions, and would thus become the 
name of that which catches, — a dog ; that which touches, — 
a point ; or that which holds, — a cup. When spoken of 
an object, it would as obviously signify, to catch, — touch, 
or — hold. It would again express the qualities of catch- 
ing, touching, or holding ; and, lastly, the abstract ideas 
of a catch, — a touch, — -Ahold. 

So Pty which is produced by an e^oxto^ pushing, or prO' 
truding, would naturally express, the pusher, — to push,—^ 
pushing, — protrusion. This mode of application would pro- 
duce no embarrassment in the hearer. The English word, 
shot, in its various connections, is a substanti'oe, an adjective, 
Ziverb, smd a participle : yet its meaning is always under- 
stood. And, that such a leading proposition is true, in fact, 
as well as in theory, languages, as we find them, after their 
terms have been indefinitely diversified, by art, or tacit 
agreement, furnish abundant proof. That I may not collect 



o 



8^ 



instaQC(^s from the modern dialects^ — let me only observe, 
that in Hebrezi', the same term, is generally both a nGun^, 
and a verb ; as in these examples, 

h>n Hie, to lii)e ;—an a7iimal ; — life, 

ripb Leke, to take, receive ;^— a prison; — a pair of tougs^^ 
ox forceps ; — a taking ;— learning, 

13]/ Hober, to passover ; — about; — >a passage; — beyond* 

^D]/ Hopl, to lift up ; — a tower ; — haughty ; &c. 

A language, of such extreme simplicity could not fail of 
presenting sufficient hints, for gradual organization of a 
jmore precise dialect, as the advancing state of society 
should render it necessary ; — whilst, in the mean time, this 
primitive tongue must have answered all the exigencies 
of an infant race. 

Let us put the case, that Adam the first man would in* 
form his new-cxeated bride, of the elephant i, The cha- 
racter which he had already described in this animal, in the 
act of naming him, was, probably, his enormous bulk. This 
description he is now to repeat. Being an inexpert orator, 
he would not trust entirely, and exclusively, to the powers 
of his voice. His arms would be elevated, and spread abroad, 
— in order to intimate the comprehension of gigantic space. 

This descriptive gesture would be aided by an immediate, 
and spontaneous inflation of his cheeks, till his breath would 
find a passage through his nostrils. This natural description 
of a huge bulk would produce the sound B, — M ; and that 
sound, rendered articulate by the intervention of a vowel. 



38^ 

would describe bulkiness^ and might he appropriated most 
happily^ to the elephant^ or great beast. 

He would speak next of the horse, whom he had_, per- 
haps, named, by describing his quick, and his energetic mo- 
tion. The idea might be painted by a rapid movement 
of the hand, and a sudden hissing effusion of his breath, 
like an impetuous utterance of the syllable soos. This 
being the Hebrew name of the horse, appears to be intended 
as a description of his velocity ; — for it is applied also to the 
swallow, and to a kind of night-moth, which is said to 
be agility itself. 

Our great progenitor might add an account of some ani- 
mals, by imitating their voices, calling the cow. Moo, 
and the sheep, or lambs, J5«. He may have described the 
dove, by fluttering his hand, so as to intimate the act of 
the wing in flight, and by repeating the syllable, Toor, 
toor. 

He now walks forth, accompanied by the mother of 
mankind. The elephant presents his enormous bulk 4— the 
horse flies over the field ; the bem, and the .soos are soon, 
and readily distinguished. They are saluted by the cozi\ 
the sheep, and the dove : the ikfoo, the Ba, and the I'oor, 
are immediately recognised. How great must have been 
their joy, to find themselves in possession of a social lan- 
guage ! 

These atoms of the simplest words are given, merely to 
illustrate my conceptions, respecting primitive names ; that 
is, to show, how they had sprung from nature, and in what 
manner they described certain states, or actions. The words 
acquired by onomatopaiaj are not exceptions. They are 



384 

not absolute, but merely descriptive terms. They paint the 
action of the voice. By the likeness preserved in this oral 
picture, the Moo, the Ba, and the Toor^ are distinguished. 
They are the mooing, the baing, and the tooring animals. 
This view of the subject, as I have already hinted, appears 
to account best for the formation of language, and for 
the acquisition of its two principal parts, nouns, and verbs. 

The term, unconsciously generated by the effort it meaais 
to describe, naturally, and obviously pointed out the par- 
ticular thing, and its mode of existence,, — or the agent, and 
the nature of his action. Nouns, and verbs were produced 
at a birth. 

I deprecate the imputation of impiety, for supposing that 
man was not . furnished with language at his creation. 
Would it have been a more stupendous miracle, or greater 
mercy, to constitute a language for man, — than to endow 
laim with requisite powers, and with pre-disposition, to 
make one for himself? 

Had primitive language been of divine origin, man would 
have been under the sacrilegious necessity of mutilating, or 
altering it, every day. No language could have accom- 
modated itself, exempted from those changes^ to the con- 
ditions of society, for which man was designed. Some- 
thing would be superfluous, or something deficient. Even 
the language of the Old Testame?it, contains a multitude 
of terms, in acceptations, which Adam, during the^ first 
years of his life, could not possibly have understood. — 
How could he then have preserved their meaning ? 

The language of our first parents must have been 
simple, when compared with Ilebrezv, as that venerable 



385 

t<^ngue isj compared with ours. But language could not 
long have been confined within such narrow limits. Being 
once put in motion^ its use, and properties once under- 
stoGd> it easily kept pace with social progress. 

The intellectual exertions df the first ages, were both 
rapid, and various. And, as no society of men has been 
found in the possession of knowledge, without adequate 
means for its mutual communication, we may conclude, 
that primitive language soon became rich, and compre- 
hensive. 

It may be further observed, thai men soon divided into 
distinct societies, in which they pursued various occupa- 
tions, and acquired various branches of knowledge. They 
had, consequently, vdrious occasions to call forth oral 
powers. These must have produced local terms, local 
idioms, and local acceptations of common terms. Various 
dialects must, therefore, have existed before the flood. 

One alone of these was preserved, by the single house, 
or tribe, that survived the catastrophe : the whole earth was 
d.gain of onfe language, and of one speech, whilst its in- 
habitants formed but one society. But, no sooner were they 
separated from each othc,;, and placed under a variety of 
local circumstances, thaii the sam^ causes, which had ope- 
rated before, and which must always operate, began to ge- 
nerate similar effects. 

Without calling before us, the miraculous confusion which 
affected great part of the human species, it is obvious that 
some changes, from the universal root, must have presented 
themselves immediately upon the division of the families. 

sb 



386 

New objects, and tlieir new circumstances, appeared* 
These must have been described by new terms, and phrases, 
or else, by new appropriations of old ones. The foundation 
of dialects was laid again. 

The nations, by degrees, became settled in their peculiar 
dwellings, occupations, and habits of life* The objects, 
which had been at first new, became familiar. The popu* 
lar usages, to which necessity, or accident, had given 
birth, began to acquire prescriptive authority, in all com- 
munities, were to be regarded as the legitimate standards of 
propriety, and were established by general rules. The /an- 
guages acquired their discriminative character, and compa* 
rative stability. 

But still, th^y were nothing more than dialects of the mo* 
ther tongue. There were local modes of oral deliver y,terms 
of expression, combinations, and applications of terms; but 
the fundamental principles were universaL Each colony 
had planted its own slip of the parent tree, in its new pa- 
trimony. 

These offsets assumed, of course, different shapes, and 
flourished, more, or less, according to the soil, the aspect^ 
climate, or skill, of each planter, and the labour of his 
cultivation. Some put forth more luxuriant branches than 
others ; but the leaves, and fruit they bore, w^re still of the 
same class, and species. 

Let us examine the natural characters of this plant, in 
some of those peculiar specimens, which have neither 
been pampered by excess of culture, nor starved by 
extreme neglect. 



387 . ^ 

The very ancient language of the Chinese is comprised, 
at this day, in a few simple monosyllables, which are 
equally non^ns, and 'oerhs. They form no compounds, and 
they admit of no unmeaning prefixes, or terminations. The 
signs of cases, numbers, voices, moods, tenses, and per- 
sons, are distinct words of known value. By their ar- 
rangement, and by certain variations, in the tones of the 
voice, these few, simple terms, can serve the purpose of a 
copious_> and precise language. 

The same articulate sound appears to convey but one 
kading idea, throughout the several tones of it. 

Thus Fu, primarily, signifies covering, which idea is 
thus diversified by the accents : — JPw, a husband ; Fu, to 
kelp, or protect ; Fit, a tozvn ; Fu, a father ; Fu, to con^ 
eeal, or cover. Dr. Hager's Element. Char, 

Other ancient languages border upon this degree of simpli- 
city. All the native terms of the Welsh, and of the Irish, 
are fairly reducible to three or four hundred monosyllabic 
xoots, of the simplest form, frequently both nouns, and 
verbs. 

Critics in the Hebreze) language, have declared their 
opinion, that all its roots were originally monosyllabic* ; and 

that *^ each Hebrew root has but one leading idea, or mean- 

B b 2 



* Pleraeque Hebrccorum voces, ab exordio, monosyllabae, plurium postea syl- 
labarum tuere, vel additis participiorum incrementis, vel affixis, Niphal, 
Hiplial, vel aliis augmentis inutiiibus. Thoyn. Gloss. Univ ad voc. n"]^. 

Certum est linguas omnes, quEemonosyllabis constant, esse casteris antiquiores. 
'^f^aimasiua, dc Lin^ Hellen. P. 390. 



388 

ing, taken from nature, by our senses> or feelliigs, which 
runs through all the branches, and deflections of it, howevei! 
numerous^ and diversified.'* Parkkurst, 

The nouns of several languages are not declined at all* 
The eases are distinguished by terms of known value^ Verbs 
are varied, in their moods, and their tenses, by auxiliaries, 
and in their persons, by pronouns out of composition, whilst 
the term, that simply describes the action^ or statCj remains 
unmoved. 

Those prefixes, and final terminations, which abound in 
some languages, are, in many instances, evident remains, 
or corruptions, of distinct, and significant words^ or terms. 
Thus prefixes, and suffixes, which distinguish the persons, and 
the tenses, of the Hebrew verb, ai*e acknowledged to be 
eertain parts of their primitive pronouns. 

Something of this kind, agreeably to the laws of general 
grammar, must be supposed in all such instances. Men 
could never have agreed to vary the known meaning of a 
word, in a determinate, and regular manner, by adding to 
it sounds, to which they attached no meaning at all. 

Are we not warranted in concluding, that the parent of 
those languages, which retain the characters here described. 
Was founded in a few simple terms, descriptive either of lead- 
ing ideas, or obvious perceptions, and so constructed, as to 
serve the purposes, equally, of nouns, and verbs ? 

' That it made no variance of its nouns, and verbs, by the 
tielp of unmeaning prefixes, — of insertions, — and of ter- 
minations, but singly by the application of other tenns,which, 
however simple, had their known, and perceptible import. 



.389 

And that, if it formed compound words, it must have pre-* 
served their several parts entire and perfectly distinct, so as to 
be immediately reducible to their primitives, as in the JE?zgZf5^ 
words, pen-hiife, horse-man : instead of rendering them 
obscure by contraction, or corrupt pronunciation ^ as 
lovely, for love-like ; zvorship, for uorth-shape ; bosn, for 
boatswain ; or huzzif, for house-uifc ? 

It cannot, perhaps, be ascertained, in what instances wc 
have preserved the actual terms of the universal language ; 
but if it should be competent for us to ascertain the value of its 
elementary sounds, and the rules, by which those elements 
were combined, we may regard its principles as. fairly re^ 
stored* 

The individual problems, which Euclid solved amongst 
his friends, are unknown ; but, understanding the definite, 
properties of his figures, and made once intimately ac- 
quainted with his elements, we may be sure of determining,, 
^s this great geometrician would have done, upon simijvii^ 
(QCCHsions, 



390 



Sect. III. Of the material accideiits and changes which 
have affected elementary sounds, and characters) in pri- 
mitive words. 



B, 



'EFOR.E I attempt an explanation of the several names 
of the letters^ and consider the force of their several_, and 
respective^ elementary sounds^ in the formation of language^ 
I think it necessary to take some notice,, of the more 
general accidents^ and changes in utterance^ and in or- 
thography. 

In subjects that are so complex^ exceptions^ and ano- 
ihalies must be supposed : but we may observe^ in most of 
the dialects^ whilst undergoing the operation of culture, 
and refinement^ a general progress, from simplicity of 
terms, to artificial combination, and from strength, or 
energy of sounds, to delicacy, and softness. This progress 
must have begun, long before the complete formation of 
those languages, which come under our notice. 

When men first communicated their thoughts to each 
other, by such tones, and articulations, as were produced 
naturally, and spontaneously, by their various perceptions, 
and emotions, accompanied wdth strong gestures, their 
elementary sounds were probably few ; but they must have 
been the most energetic, and, therefore, the most perfect, 
as wxll as distinct, of their kind. 

Those obscure, and short breathings, which merely serve 
to assist articulation, and which are neglected^ in the or^ 



391 

Aography of the old Asiatic languages^ must be degraded 
from the rank of elements. But^ it is probable, that;, in the 
infancy of language, the textual vowels, intended for de- 
script ion, were generally uttered with strong aspiration. 

This energetic utterance has adhered so closely to the 
Hebrew vowels, that several grammarians have, since the 
introduction of points, regarded them as consonants. 

In Greek, the aspiration is the constant attendant of 
the initial Y, and, frequently, of the other initial vowels. 

The case was the same in the old Latin — ^' H, liter am_, 
sive illam, spiritum, magis quam literam, dici oportet, in- 
serebant veteres nostri, plerisque vocibus verborum firman- 
dls, roborandisque, ut sonuseorumessetvividior^ vegetiorque.'*' 
A. Gell ii. 3. 

Every noun, and verb, in tlie Welsh language, that be^ 
gins with a vowel, has that vowel regularly aspirated, after 
certain pronouns; Si^ Arglzeydd, a lord; Ei Harglzcydd, 
her lord; Eu Harglwydd, their lord; Achuh, to save; 
Ei Hachub, to save her ; Eu Hachub, to save them. 

The Irish also aspirate the initial vowels of their nouns, 
feminine, after the article 7ia ,• and their initial vowels, iu 
general, admit of the aspiration, in certain positions^ re- 
gulated by the grammar. 

From this general consent of old languages, it may be 
inferred, that man's first efforts to express, by vocal signs, 
were attended with strong, and forcible aspirations. 

These primary vowel-tones appear;, from a comparison of 



til oil* symbols, \n the oldest alphabets, to have only been 
five, each produced, in its peculiar seat of utterance. Pei:-i 
haps they were nearly as follows : — A, as Ha, in half ; or 
ji, in father, uttered from our throat, without contraction 
of th^ tongue, or lips. 

JEJ, somewhat broader than hea, in heat, or ea,^ in beat,^ 
from the root of the palate, by a contraction of the tongue 
in that part^ 

I, as the pronoun he, or ee, in meet, — ^from the fore part 
of the palate, by keeping the tongue nearly in contact, and 
thrusting it fo3;wards. 

O, as ho, in /^o% or the interjection 0, — from the lips,, 
by forming them into a round orifice, thrusting them for-^ 
wards, and retracting the tongue. 

U, as hoo, in hoof, or 0,, in move, resulted f3;om the con* 
cave sound of the whole mouth, by a retraction of the 
tongue, and an elevation of the cheeks, and lips, in whicK 
the latter were almost closed. 

Amongst these volatile elements of language, great 
changes have been introduced. Their powers have so much 
Taried, as to have bee^ mistaken for each other : and or- 
thography, which, in all countries, creeps but slowly after 
the mode of utterance^ has frecj^uently substituted one 
vocal symbol for the other. The variations from the vowels 
of primitive words, in the formation of Greek \ex\}^, for 
instance, are so numerous, that it would be difficult, if 
not imprricticable, to reduce them into any system. But,^ 
with such changes, 1 have little to do in my essay : for my 
business only is with primitive terms, which^, in general^ 



.393 

maj have received their present form, before the terms of 
languages,, and the accidents of terms, became so numerous^, 
as to render anomalous changes necessary, for the sake 
<5f distinction. 

In the fundamentals of speech, we may expect, naturally, 
to find the changes of the vowels more simple, and less irre- 
gular. But here, it must be owned, we have no op- 
portunity of detecting those changes, but on grounds of 
general ^nalqgy. 

The first change that took place was^ probably, an 
occasional omission of the aspirate,, 

primitive man uttered simple, but energetic term§, ac- 
companied with strong gestures. The frequent repetitions of 
these, upon similar occasions, must have given them a 
known, and a current value. 

It became, therefore, no longer necessary, to impress the 
idea, by the emphasis of the voice, and of the gesture : it 
might be sufficiently intimated, by a bare repetition of the 
term itself. Practice introduced ease of expression ; and 
the indulgence of ease is natural to man, It wa^s fpund 
practicable to speak intelligibly, not only without violent 
gesture, but without an intense exertion of breath; con- 
sequently, the aspiration of the vowels might be occa- 
sionally omitted. 

And we find this omission still gains ground, more and 
iqfiore, as men study the softness, and delicacy of language. 

Some centuries ago, the Italians frequently sounded the 



594 

aspirate H : at present,, they hardly know what is meant 
by it. 

Thus Hd, He, Hi, Ho, Hu, became a, e, i, 6, u ; but 
this change occasioned httle, or no confusion in language. 
The vowels retained their essential powers^ in utter- 
ance, and their proper symbols in orthography. 

Other innovations were gradually introduced, which ren- 
dered the natural expression of the vocal sound less per- 
ceptible. The general progress from energy to delicacy, 
and from the latter to indolence, in place of the primi- 
tive open A, substituted the power of the slender English A, 

This power, the ancient Hehrezcs, perhaps, represented 
by n ; but, as in most alphabets, it wants an appropriate 
character, it has been generally represented by E. Thus, 
in Latin, Ago forms Egi, and several compounds change 
A into E. The same change regularly takes place in the 
Welsh language, 

E was also reduced, occasionally, to the more delicate 
and slender sound of I, (ee.) Hence, the Latin verbs, 
Egeo, Teneo, Emo, &c. in their compounds, regularly 
take I, in the place of E. And, as A was mutable into 
JE, and E into /, so the power of the first of these vowels 
was reduced frequently to that of /. In Latin, there 
are not fewer than about twenty simple verbs, which as 
pften as they are compounded, regulaily change A into /, 

I, as ee, being, in its own nature, the most slender soun^" 
we can utter, has retained its place, and its power, more" 
generally than the others. 



395 

By neglecting to form the orifice of the lips^, with due 
i"Otundity, the power of was reduced into an obscure sound, 
like that of Ho, in honey, or of O, in come ; consequent- 
ly, it was often confounded with U, both in dehvery, 
andin orthography; as custom had reduced that vowel also, 
to the same obscure sound, by neglecting to put the lips 
near enough together. 

U was often reduced into a more slender sound, approach^ 
ing that of /, or ee ; but still retaining, in some degree, its 
natural hollow tone. 

This power, the Greeks represented by r ; and the Welsh, 
in their popular orthography, by the single U. The simi- 
larity of this tone to that of /, has given the Welsh, and 
the Greeks, frequent occasion to confound it with i. 
The Roman U, often corresponded with T, (Greek) 
and the single U of the Welsh, 

Their best authors, at an age, in which oral delinquency 
would have been intolerable, wrote Sulla, or Sylla, Lubet, 
or Libet, Optumus, or Optimus, and iimiis, or imus, in 
the termination of all superlatives. /, was the general, 
centre of the vowels, to which they all tended, when they 
left their proper sphere. 

A negligent utterance, would, sometimes, reduce either 
of the vowels into the obscure sound of O, in come. 

Thus, in English, altar, alter, bird, come, sum ; and, 
in Welsh, A, E, O, and U, are, in certain situations, mu- 
table into Y, which represents this obscure sound. 

Such innovations, whether introduced by either refine* 



396 

ment, or by negligence, have proved injurious, by con- 
founding powers, which ought invariably to have been dis- 
tinct, and by weakening the force of natural expression ; 
but we must take these things as we find them. 

The following table presents a general view of the changes 
I have remarked. 





Primitive 


Soft 


r ' 


Obscure 




Aspirate. 


Breathing. 


Mutation. 


Utterance. 




rHa . . . . 




He, Hi . 


Ho 


A 


] 








1 


a 


e, i . . . 


o 




fHe . . . . 




Hi .... 


Ho 


E 


\ 








I 


ea . * , .. 


i . . *^ . 


a 




fHee. . . . 




! 




I 




ee . . .. ,. 




/ 




f Ho .... 




Ho . . . 


Ho 


o 


\ 








I 


o 


6 . . - . 


o 




{ Hoo . . , 


• • ^« • • • 


V .... 


Ho 


U 


\ 










I 


oo . . . . 


'y .... 


o 



Ho, as in honey ; o, as o in come. 



Of the consonants, those are the most forcibly descriptive, 
^ndbest^iccommodated by their natural tones to the language 



S97 

cf gesture^ which require a perfect contact of the orgahs of 
s'peechj at the point of articulation^ and the energetic im- 
pulse of breath : But of these, one only can be ever pro- 
duced, in any one part of the mouth. These were^ there- 
fore, primitives, necessarily. 

P was a labial primitive ; — it was produced by a contact 
ef the lips, and a forcible impulse of breath. 

T was a dental primitive, and formed by a contact of 
the tip of the tongue, with the roots of the upper teeth. 

S may be called suh^dental, formed by the act of pressing 
the lower teeth with the tip of the tongue, so forcibly,as to 
bend its surface almost into contact with the upper gums. 

^L, pronounced as tiie Welsh LI, may be named a gin^ 
gival. It is formed, by the act of placing the tongue evenly 
against the upper gums, and forcing out breath on. 
both sides. 

*jR, delivered as Greek 'P, was a palatal primitive. It 
is uttered, by fixing the sides of the tongue firmly against the 
sides of the palate, and by impelling our breath so forcibly, 
as to make the tip of the tongue vibrate against the upper gums. 

C, or X, was a guttural primitive, formed by the con- 
tact of the tongue, and the root of the palate. 

The vocal, and the articulate primitives, already men- 
tioned, our first parents must have possessed, in the first 
years of their existence. Their natural efforts, to de- 
scribe by gesture, would necessarily call them fortli int« 
action. 



398 

As I have already observed, in the vowel, famiKarity 
of language must have superseded the constant necessity 
of energetic exertion. It must have been soon found 
practicable, to articulate intelligibly, without uniformly^ 
forcible impulse of breath. And the organs of speech, 
placed in the same points of contact, with a soft breathing, 
produce a duplicate of articulations. Thus P is softened 
into B, T into D, S into Z, 'L into L^ 'R into JK, and C 
intoG* 

If these powers are to be regarded as less ancient than 
the others, it is evident, that still they followed them at 
no great interval. They are less emphaticaly and are not 
so likely to have accompanied the vehement gestures of 
mankind, in their ^>s^ efforts to describe their thoughts ; but 
still they are expressions of nature, and fitted admirably to 
convey distinct ideas. These, soft articulations may^ 
for distinction, be denominated sub-primitives. 

From these, again, arose another class of powers^ which 
may be termed refractedj rather than nasal sounds; be- 
cause their distinction, amongst themselves, depends upon 
the configuration of certain parts in the mouth. Still the 
organs of speech are kept in contact, and in their proper 
position ; but our breath is refracted in its course, and 
passes through the nostrils. Thus B produces M, D pro- 
duces N, and G produces ng. All these powers, except^ 
perhaps, ng, have their appropriate characters in the oldest 
alphabets. 

But the indulgence of ease in expression did not rest here. 
It proceeded, from softening the sounds, by an ease of 
breathing, to a negligent formation, as well as a careless 
utterance of them. 



399 

Men disused the necessary pains^ to put the organs 
of speech into complete contact^ at the poi7it of ar- 
ticulation. Some portion of breath escaped-, and vibrated 
in the interstice ; a kind of secondary consonants^ or semi- 
powers were produced. Thus P was reduced to <^^ or F; B 
and M, to F; T to or Th; D to Dh; C to % or Ch, 
guttural,, 8cCi 

These^ which I would call secondary consonants , may be 
deemed of considerable antiquity. They are admitted^ in 
the utterance of the oldest languages that now remain, 
if our mode of delivering them can be depended upon ; but, 
their introduction^ must have been posterior to the invent 
tion of writing. In most of the old alphabets^ \Ve find, that 
some, or all of them, want their appropriate characters. 
Not one of them is acknowledged^ amongst the sixteen 
ancient letters of the Greeks: — 0, d), and X, are late addi* 
tions, to the alphabet of that people; 

As the Asiatics took the lead, in the augmentation of* 
their alphabets, we find some of the secondary powers, or 
aspirates, amongst the series of letters, in which the law 
of Moses was written ; as, D, O, and r ; but before the in- 
troduction of points, they had no appropriate character 
for the sound of F or Fh, Bh or F, DA, 8c c. 

If the Masoret(Z mark their primitive mute, with a points 
and if they distinguisb the aspirate, or secondary power, 
by the simple character, this can prove nothing. The old 
letters had no points at all. The new mode of discrimination 
was arbitrary; or, at best, could only resolve itself into the 
taste of a corrupt age. 

The change of primitive articulations by the consonants 



400 

inithierto remarked^ had their use^ in supplying copious itia« 
terialsj for the construction of language, and in affording art 
Opportunity, for the discrimination of terms. As the Se- 
condary powers were easily referable to their primitives, ncy 
confusion could arise from their use. 

But the love of ^ase is too prone to degenerate into 
vicious indolence. The organs of speech, were suffered, 
occasionally, to hang back, so far from the point of con- 
tact, that they could no longer vibrate a distinct intimatiori 
of the intended power* Only a kind of obscurely vocal, or 
liquid sound was produced ; or breath escaped, either in total 
silence, or with a mere aspiration. Thus, in pronouncing 
J5, or ilf, the lips are brought into complete contact. If 
the contact be imperfect> these powers change to F: if the 
lips rest further apart, these powers vanish, in the obscure 
U, which is not heard, when mixed with other sounds, in 
rapid utterance. 

Let us proceed^ in like manner, with the other articu- 
lations, but still preserving a due stress of breathing ; it will 
be found that P first changes into jP, and then H; T into 
Thy and H; D into Dh, and a soft breathing; N into a 
soft breathing ; S into Sh, and H; Z into Zh (like S in mea- 
sure) and into a soft breathing; ^R into H; R into a soft 
breathing; ^L into H; L into a soft breathing; C into Ch 
or %, and into H; G into Gh, and F, and then into a soft 
breathing. 

This careless mode of utterance, which may be called the 
solution of sounds, has occasioned confusion of elemen- 
tary powers, which ought uniformly to be distinct; as the 
obscure U, for B and M, and Y for G. It has also made 
the aspirate H, a common representative of several articu- 



401 

latlonsj and has rendered others totally silent. Hence, 
many letters^ in all the living dialects, which formerly were 
pronounced, as well as written, have now lost their power. 
Such letters, orthography often rejects, as expletive> and su- 
perfluous, to the detriment of etymology. 

The reduction of the consonants to a mere breathing, 
whether soft^. or aspirate, may be termed an evanescence of 
the power. It is a disease, which particularly affects the 
language of a people during their descent into the vale of 
savage life, in which they daily find less occasion for co- 
pious expressions^ for neatnesS;^ and foi precision of speech. 






402 



The following scheme presents a general view of 
primitive articulations, with inflections, and changes,, above 
enumerated. 



«/0 


C/5 

CO 


So 




V3 
So 

■eg 


5/3 


Labial . . . p5 
Dental , . . t3 
Sith'dental . S^ 
Gingival. , . *L ) 
Palatal . , . 'R 3 
Guttural . . C-s 






F . . 

V . . 

iTh 
2Dh 

Sh . 

4Zh 


U. . 


( 

9 

C 

c 

( 
t 

{ 

3 

{ 
> 

C 

f 


B . . . 


M . 


D . . . 


N. . 


3Z . . 




T. 
















R . . . 












Ch.^ 
oGh 


Y . 


G . . . 


Ng. 



1. As in thing. 2. As th, in that. 3. As S, in reason,. 
4. As S, in measure. 5. Ncf^^iaumbrian HurL 



403 

Thus^ we find an unifoim progress^ from strength, and 
energy, to softness^ and tenuity of sounds and, from distinct 
precision, to indolent obscurity. Men being determined 
not to take too much pains to speak^ contracted a habit of 
not taking sufficient pains to speak distinctly. The 
indulgence of ease, leads naturally to listless indolence; 
till it ends in slovenly negligence. 

For the satisfaction of those who have not considered this 
topic, it may not be improper to add some proofs^ that 
changes like these have actually taken place, in the manner 
here described. 

In the Cambro-Britisk, there are several mutations of 
the letters^ w^hich are perfectly regular, throughout the whole 
of the language. They have been reduced into a system, 
from remote antiquity; good writers,, and speakers, make na 
deviation from them, for the perspicuity of speech de- 
pends upon a due regard to them, and they all follow the 
order I have delineated. 

A changes into E, Ei, and Y; E into 7, Ei, Y ; O into 
Y; W (the broad U) into U (y) and Y; P into P, M, B; 
B into M, F ; B into N, Dh ; C into G, Ch ; G into 
iVg, and a soft breathing ; 'L into L; ^R into R; and T. 
into Th, Nh^ and D. 

All these changes are constantly recognised by the usage, 
and grammar of this one Celtic dialect; and, if the col- 
lateral dialects be compared with each other, we shall 
find the mutations extend, as far as the length of the- 
preceding scale. 

In the Irish language, P is mutable into Ph ; T '\nto< 
c c 2 



404 

Th ; D into Dh ; S into Sh ; C into CIi ; and G into Gh : 
and, according to the mode of pronouncing them at pre- 
sent, these derivative secondary powers for the most part 
have degenerated, either into sample aspiration, — an ob- 
scure y,— or total silence. 

The old Celtic 'Lam, a hand — is, in h^ishy pronounced 
Lav, and in Welsh, 'Laze. 'Lamin, a blade, is, in Welsh, 
'Lavin, in Irish, La'?i?i. Aman, or Amon, a river, in 
Irish, is pronounced Avan ; in Welsh^ A^on ;■ in Cornish^ 
Juon; and in Manks, A'on, 

The same observations may be abundantly exemplified^ 
by the result of comparing the oral, and written languages, 
in most countries, especially, accompanied by recourse to 

the old orthographies. 

Another irregularity of oral language, which has often 
affected orthography, may be termed contraction, or the act 
of compounding two elementary sounds into one. In 
this kind of anomaly, the organs of speech are not pro- 
perly adjusted, so as to utter the two elementary sounds, 'in 
succession, bwt are placed in some intermediate situation^ 
which produces a power, partaking of both. This has fre- 
quently happened, in the vowels, which, at first, were all 
distinct in their sound, and belonged exclusively to their dif- 
ferent syllables. When contracted into diphthongs, one 
(or both) of them, loses generally something of its proper 
sound; or else they are both uttered as one po\ver^ dif^ 
ferent from that of their primary effect. 

Thus ai, were contracted into an open and broad e, some- 
what like the English a, in mane : This contraction, the 
Momans frequently represented by a single e, and the Greeks 



405 

by r,. Tliat this was the genuine power of y,^ appears, by 
their mode of spelling the sound uttered by their bleating 
sheep — which is B-^ ; for, I presume, it will be granted, that 
sheep speak their Greek at this day, just as they did two 
thousand years ago. 

The long i of the Romans, except where it is long by 
position^ is generally a contraction of ei. Qui is Quel; 
and Virtutij Virtutei, on the sarcophagus of C. L. Scipio 
Barbatiis, Si was anciently Sei ; SivCj Sehe ; Captivi, 
Capteitei, 8c c. 

This contraction is^ therefore, pronounced, by the Eh- 
glishj more accurately than by the Italians, and French. 

SD, or DS, have been thus contracted, by neglecting 
to put the tip of the tongue, successively, in contact with 
the upper, and lower teeth, and suffering it to rest in the 
intermediate space, which, together with a soft breathing 
of Dj produces a sound not unlike Z. 

In like manner, St, or Ts, were contracted into a 
power_, approaching to *S', hard, and strong, or Ss, but some- 
what more lisping, and obscure. 

This contraction^ was, perhaps, what the Hebrew's ex- 
pressed by their K. 

Such a method of contracting the elements of language, 
has produced confusion. Such composite powers fre- 
quently want their appropriate characters. Hence, the 
necessity of using the symbols of pure sounds, occasionally, 
to represent something different from what they were de- 
signed^ originally^ to denote. 



406 

Those which 1 have now remarked^ are, perhaps^ the 
chief accidents which have affected the dehvery, and 
orthography of primitive, or simple terms. They have 
altered the elementary sounds of many terms,, and, conse- 
quently, the letters, or symbols of those sounds : for, or- 
thography too often connives at oral delinquency. 

These changes in language, orally delivered, and written, 
may present great obstacles to the complete analysis of 
original words, and the discovery of their natural ex- 
pression. 

But, it does not follow, that, because there are diffi- 
culties, nothing should be attempted, or that, because there 
are such anomalieSj no regularity can be ever traced. Let 
us only find the direction of the current, however devious 
the channel, it will furnish a clue for the discovery of its 
own source. 

In this investigation, the following observations may be 
of use. 

The first principles of a language are to be examined in 
its most natural, and simple terms ; from which terms, all 
declinable terminations are to be removed. 

In order to express distinctly the indefinite variety of 
ideas, gradually unfolded by the social progress, it was 
found expedient, in early periods, to combine with 
a leading term, some other, of an equally simple na- 
ture, and thus to extend, qualify, diversify, or confine the 
meaning. 

These adventitious terms are now found, in the shape of 



407 

initial J ox filial letters, adhering so closely to their princi- 
pals^ that generally they have been regarded as inseparable 
parts. 

By analogical comparison^ however,, it may be discover- 
ed, that the same terms/ with diiferent initial, or final let- 
ters, still convey similar ideas ; and that the initials had^ 
originally, the force of articles, prepositions, or adverbs^ 
and the final letters, that of terminative nouns, adjectives, 
participles, 8cc. This being recollected, it will be evident, 
that any individual people, or different nations, may have 
compounded their terms variously, or have used very different 
prefixes, insertions, and final letters, yet, may not be 
chargeable, with a total confusion of primitive terras. 



408 



Sect. IV. On the names, and natural expressions of the 

vowels, 

JL NOW proceed to explain the several names of the let- 
ters, and to investigate their force and import, in the for- 
mation of language. And first of the Vowels, 



1. Frimitive power. As Ha, in Jialf) or as a, m 
fiather. 

2. Mechanical forynatioti. This power is uttered, by 
opening the lips, and the interior part of the mouth, mo- 
derately, and evenly, and breathing firmly, freely, and 
steadily, from the lari/nx, whilst the tongue rests, in its 
natural situation, at the bottom of the mouth. 

3. By this oral gesture, and this open, uninterrupted ^oundi, 
men may be conceived, naturally, and spontaneously, to 
have expressed the ideas of a tendency forwards — positive 
continuance, in a uniform state, whether of motion, of ac- 
tion, or of rest, 

4. Its name, in the Druidical alphabet, and its force, 
in the structure of the Celtic language. 

The specific name of this letter is, simply, the repetition 
of its power. A; but this sound, in the Celtic language, 
constitutes a complete and characteristical term^ conveying 



409 

the general idea of proceedings going forth, tending for- 
zoards — a positive agency, or state; as appears^ by the 
following appropriations. 

Welsh, A, xoill go, or proceed forth. It must be re- 
memberedj that^ in this dialect^ the third person, future, 
is the root of the verb. This is also the case^ in the Cor- 
nish, where A has the same meaning ; as^ My a, I will go ; 
Ty a, thou zoilt go. 

In Irish, ^ is a substantive^ with the following appro- 
priations: A, a car, or chariot; o. promontory ; a hill; an 
ascent.' — What goes, proceeds, or tends forzcards, or tip- 
wards ; for_, in most languages,, the ideas of ascending, and 
of being conspicuous, are connected with those oi proceed- 
ing, and standing forth: so, on the contrary, terms which 
imply a retrograde motion, or a negative tendency, are, also, 
frequently used, to signify descent, concealment, or oh- 
scurity. 

A has many other several meanings, but all of them di- 
rect and positive. When placed between the nominative 
case, and the verb, in either of the Celtic dialects, it has 
the force of the j»erso/za/ and relative pronouns combined, 
as Mi a av, ^^ I am he who will proceed." After the verb, 
it has the same force, in the objective case, Gwnav a 
wnelwyv, ^' I will do that which 1 will do." In this po- 
sition, it also points out the instrument, or cause; as, 
Lladdwyd a ehleddyv, '' He was killed nnth a sword." In 
Welsh, A is a conjunction, a7id, also, both; and, in Irish, 
a demonstrative article — still conveying a positive, and a 
direct meanini>-, 

5, In the Latin and Greek languages, the same principle 



410 

is traced. This element has, evidently;, a similar force, in 
some of their most primitive terms, to that which has beea 
remarked in Celtic, 

Thus A'io, I affirm, or declare^ 

A-», Always, for ever, continually, 

A-&;, I breathe forth ; I speak, or declare. 

By the admission of different initials, each of which will 
be shewn hereafter, to have its appropriate meaning, this 
verb forms several compounds, which are generally ranked 
amongst primitives. Though modified, agreeably to the 
nature of their several initials, they all convey the leading 
idea of issuing, ox putting forth, a direct txndL positive ten-- 
dency ; as, 

B'uu, I go, or proceed forth, 

T-aa, I am horn, I come forth; I bring forth, 

'E.-au, 1 permit, I let go, 
Z-ua, I live, I thrive, I go on, 

©-aw, \ gaze forwards, 

K-ciu), I kindle — cause to move forth. 

A-aa, I see, I desire — tend forwards, 

M'ccco, 1 earnestly desire^ 



411 

^'uup Iflozi)— proceed forth, 

T'otcoy whence Ta?w (Eustath) I extend. 

^auj 1 shine forth, I affirm, ox declare, 

6. The symbohcal plant, which represented this power, 
was the fir-tree, whose remarkable length and straitness, 
are eminently characteristical of continuance, uniformity, 
a direct tendency, a. positive state, ox proceeding. 

The Irish name of this tree, and, consequently, of the 
letter, is Ailm, or Ailim, which may be thus derived. Ail, 
he hath desired, or willed. It is to be observed, that, in 
this dialect, the third person preterite, is the root of the 
verb. 

Ail, signifies the will, desire, or disposition, to any thing; 
also s. prominent point: — what tends, or proceeds forwards. 
The final m, or im, in this, and many other words, seems to 
be from the old Celtic Em, He, — that, zchich, — equivalent 
to 0?, the Greek relative, and termination of nouns: so that 
the whole name, Ailim,Amip\ies, that which proceeds forth, 
or tends forwards. 

Al, in old Welsh, signifies zoill go or proceed, whence the 
subjunctive. El, still in use, and Em is written, ev, or ef 
In the orthography of the Welsh Bible, the name would be 
Alef, very similar to that of the Hebrew i<. 

In Cad Goddau, the allegorical poem, already men- 
tioned, Taliesin speaks thus of the fir-tree, the symbol of 
this power. 



412 

Fenidwydd^ ynghyntedd^ 
Cadeir gyngwrysedd^ 
O mi goreu ardderchedd,, 
Ger bron teyrnedd. 

^' The fir-tree, in the porcA, 

*' In the seat of the leader of enterprize, 

" Where he acquired renown, 

'^ In the presence of princes." 

Here the bard seats this power, in the front of the series^, 
and recognises his office as a had^-, 

7. The Greek and Hebrew names of this letter present 
similar ideas. 

AX(pa. must be nearly related to AX<p>3, honour, precedence; 
A}^(puj I discover, take the lead, or teach a new art ; at^^o? 
white, clear — what stands forth, or is conspicuous, 

J^Vk, Aleph, to direct, guide, teach ; a director, leader, 
^—Parkhurst, 

As the Hebrews were careful to distinguish this, and their 
other letters, by names of known, and of definite import, it 
may be presumed that they were aware of some adequate 
reason, for such an accurate distinction. The most obvious 
reason must be, that, in the structure of their language, the 
power of each letter was perceived to have a force, ana- 
logous to the meaning of the name assigned to it. We 
might, therefore, expect, that Aleph *had something of a 
positive, demonstrative, or intensive quality — that it tended 
and directed forvvards, or enhanced the meaning of the 
powers, with which it stood connected. And such a quality 



41 



O 



hy I think, Yery perceptible^ in several terms of the Ilehreze 
language. 

To those who are critically acquainted with it^ I recom- 
mend such instances as the following. 

*73 Bed, alone, single, simple : 

13X Abed, to peiish — to be simplified, ox decomposed, 

nn Bene, to build : 

DK Aben, a mason's level ; a, stone — djo. implement , ox ma-- 
terial for building— whsit serves to carri/ on the design. 

li'^ Isk, is, are ; li^'K, Aish, a man, an individual. That 
zchich is. 

nOT Deme, to think, to resemble : 

Dli<, Adam, Man : he who was peculiarly endowed with 
the faculty of thinking — and who was formed, in the like- 
ness, or resemblance of his maker. 

Thus N, prefixed to nouns or verbs, does not invert, but 
rather • enhances and confirms the idea, expressed by the 
other elements, having the meaning of the preposition to, 
and the relative he who, — that which. Sec. 

The middled conveys the idea of proceeding — or tending 
forwards ; as, nn bed, one, only, alone — the idea of these 
elements is rather nec^ative. 

•7i<n Bad, to explain, declare; a spring — ^by the intro- 



414 

duction of K, the idea becomes positive,, and tends forwards 
nni gee, to repair, cure, restore to its former state ; nxj 
Gae, to increase, to be lifted up ; proud, rm Dede, to go 
$ofthj\ T\^1, D'de, to fly swiftly ; d^ vulture, 

"yy Jheb, to cry out^ with terror^ or abhorrence. 

3K> Jab, to desire earnestly, to long for, 

vhiD Shle, to be quiet, free, careless, 

^K*i!; Shal, to ask, require, demand, 

N.B. In expressing the Hebrew words by Roman letters, 
I follow Parkhurst, except that I represent rr by he, or eh, 
not by a simple aspirate — e, or a, is sometimes inserted, to 
assist the articulation. 

E. 

1. As Hea, in heat, or as Ea, in beat, 

2. Let this power be uttered immediately after, or alter- 
nately, with an ^open ^, and it will be found, that all the 
organs of speech retain the same position, except that your 
tongue is now bent forcibly towards the root of the palate, 
as if it were intended, by nature, to arrest, or check the 
egress, and free passage of breath. 

3. It is, therefore, an evident contrast of tones, and of sounds, 
to these above intimated, and should convey ideas, diame- 
trically opposite. Instead of representing uniform, and free 
continuance of motion, or agency, a. direct, aiidpositive state, 
or tendency; it seems, naturally, to express a suddeu 



415 

che-cky motion, or act interrupted, or broken, an indirect, 
perverted, or negative state, or tendency. 

4. Its Bardic narae is E, and the force of the vowel^ in 
the Celtic language^ is opposed constantly to that of A, 
In Irish, it forms an adjective^ importing negative qualities 
alone, such as lean, thin, miserable. In the same dialect_, a 
bird is named E-an, perhaps, from its flitting, unsteady 
motion. In all the dialects, it implies a segregated indivi- 
dual, or thing, or an indefinite agent, such as it, before 
English impersonals. E, prefixed, in every instance, unless 
where it is a mutation of A, is a complete negative, or pri- 
vative, and pei-verts-the meaning of the simple word; as, 
W, Ang. strait, narrozo, confined, whence Anghen, 
distress, need, necessity; Angau, death, (as, in Latin, 
angor, angulus. Sec.) but E-ang, wide, spacious, ample: 
angu, to coop up, coirfine; E-angu, to set at large: Ovn, 

frar; E-ovn, bold, intrepid. So in Irish, Ce, dark, con- 
cealed; E-ce, clear, onanifest : Dearbh, sure, certain; 
E-dearbh, false, wrong, uncertain — and so on, through the 
language. 

It may hence be gathered, that primary ideas, expressed 
by E, in the old Celtic, were those of a sudden check, an in- 
terrupted, or broken act, an indirect, perverted state, ox ten- 
dency, and, therefore, negation, segregation, ox privation. 

5. The same appears to have been its import, in the 
formation of the Latin and Greek languages. Hence, 
Gr. E. adv. of complaining — zcoe! alas.' H. adv. of 
doubting, or hesitation, or, either. Lat. E, prep, of re- 
moval, and privative particle, as in e-nodus. In both lan- 
guages, E, with divers initials, retains the same negative, 
privative, iind restrictive qualhies; as the Latin adv. ne. 



V 



416 

and the Greek vt, 'in composition; fxv), adv. prohibitory; 
de, re, se, &c. privative, or segregative particles. E, in 
Latin, is sometimes an intensive prefix ; as in e-dvrus ; 
but here, it must be regarded as a mutation of A. Eo, in 
Greek, has anomalous meanings; probably, because, in 
the confusion of vowels, in that language, it is put for other 
verbs : as, for Au, to go on, to be, or continue, and for i<y, 
to send to, or place. Ew, may primarily have implied, to 
move, remove, take. 

The common, and, comparatively, modern Greek, often 
substitutes £ or vi, for the a of the old Doinc ; and, on the 
contrary, a, for the » of the Doric ; *j or £ of the Ionic, and 
8 of the Molic. The cause of this anomaly, was, that, in 
the rapidity of utterance, a, t, and d, were often reduced into 
an obscure sound, which had no appropriate character, and 
was, therefore, variously represented. However this may 
have been, I think, general analogy will warrant the con- 
clusion, that the Greek cc privative, was a substitution for 
i or *j. The positive element a, still retains its intensive, or 
augmentative force, as the initial of several words, and it is 
not probable, that the same power was employed, originally, 
to express ideas diametrically opposite. 

The same kind of substitution has gained admittance in 
the Welsh language, and, I think, for the same reason. 
We now use the negative particles ad, am, av, an, for the 
edy em, en, of our oldest manuscripts. 

The Lat. prep, a, aft, was probably j4p ox awo, which is 
best explained by the Celtic, ap-o, springing from or 
out of. 

6. The syrnbo!^ or the representative of this power^ was the 



417 

nsp, or white poplar. The quivering leaves of this tree very 
aptly represent an interrupted, broken motiouj or action—* 
an indirect, perverted state, or tendency. 

The Irish name of this tree, and of the letter, is Eadha, 
From Ad J one and the same, comes Adh, a larc, felicity, 
prosperity — what is positive and established — also, Jit, or 
apt to do any thing. By prefixing the negative E, the word 
becomes Eadh, unestablished, indirect, unapt, inconstant, 
undetermined. 

It is sometimes called Ebhadh, which amounts to the 
same thing. Eb, without absque, and adh, as before. 

Of this symbol, Taliesin allegorically remarks. 

Gwiwydd gorthorad, 
Gorthorysid ynghad. 

" The asp was broken; 

*^ It was cut off, in the conflict/' 

This IS an evident hint, at the inefficient, broken, inter* 
rupttd, nature of this element. 

7. The Greek E, when depriv^ed of its epithet^ retains 
only the simple name of the Bardic, and Etruscan letter, 
Urx seems to have conveyed an idea o^ privation, frustration, 
restriction, &c. Restore the derivative^, to its primativer, 
and »jTa must be a strainer, whence n^v^, r^k^a, to strain 
liquor — r,^-ix per coluni mittere Eto?, in vain, comes near to 
this name. 



p a 



418 

It ha^ already bieen observed, that the primitive vowels 
were strongly aspirated^ and that this aspiration, has adhered 
so closely to the Hebrew vowek, as to occasion the mistake 
of them for consonants: yet_, I think, we can safely pro- 
nounce n to have been originally a sjmbol of the power, 
jE, He, or Heh. And the name it bears seems to imply, 
that it was acknowledged to have the same general force, in 
the structure of the oriental tongues, which it discovers, in 
those of Europe, 

nn Heth, terror, dread, aversion, 

TlDH' Hethe, to take azvay, remote, hum, dissolve, 

Sinn Hetketh, to break, frighten, discourage, descend. 

And as the force of K, in Hebrew words, corresponds to 
the import of its name, so does that of n, in an eminent 
and peculiar degree. As an initial, it is an absolute nega- 
tive, or privative. It perverts the general import of the 
elements, with which it is connected ; changes positive ideas 
into negative, and negative into positive. I offer the follow- 
ing examples. 

p2 Beq, to lay waste, empty ; 
p2n Hebeq, to fold, embrace, 

*^3i Ber, to separate, cleaiise, char out; 
inn Heber, to associate, join, 

Z'H Bash, to fade, be abashed, neglect ; 
S^DH Hebash, to bind, gird, heal, govern. 



419 

^^ Gev, to remove, pluck azcai/; 

njrr Heger^ to gird^ strengthen ; a girdle^ 

pr Zeq, to melty dissolve J separate; 
ptn Hezeq^ to lay hold, be stro7ig. 

nit^D Peshe^to spread, diffuse over; 
U'Drr Hepesh^ to strip, divest, 

i^ Rab_, to multiple/, he great ; 

y\n Herab, to ravage, destroy/, dry up, waste 

rhw Shele_, tohe free, quiet, secure; 
b]Vn Heshel^ to defeat, break, fatigue, 

HTii^ Shere, to untie, send forth; 

'^Wn Hesher, to bind, conderise, constipate 

A similar contrast^ between the words which begin with 
TJ, and those which have not that letter, may be regularly 
observed, throughout the language. The negative, or pri- 
vative import of n is perceptible, though, perhaps, not so 
invariably and obviously, in other situations- as. 



rh^. Bele, to mix, mingle ; 
/m Behl, to nauseate, retch. 



n31 Bene, to build, compose ; 

]n2 Behn, to try, examine, prove, take apart ^ 

nj Ge, to heal, close; 

ru Geh^ to break, burst forth. 

Dc!2 



420 

So, in the third order. 

nir Zene, to incircle, unfold, gird round; 
n:^ Xeneh, to cast off, remove, put azoay. 

It is clear, then, that this letter has, in the Hebrew lan- 
guage, a discriminate force, which is clearly marked by its 
name, and that, in all respects, it is analogous to the 
Celtic E. 

This furnishes an argument, that the a privative of the 
Greeks, as was intimated above, is, in fact, a substitution 
for i or V), 

As A was regularly mutable into E, in the old European 
languages, so, I think, it evident, that, the Hebrezv n was 
intended, as a mutation of K. 

K or n is often used indifferently, at the end of words ; 
as, XEOn or n\D2, Beta, or Bete, to speak, ndt or HDI, Deka, 
or Beke, to smite, bruise, KtDD or niOD, Meta, or Mete 
(chald) to come, ^nx or nnx, Atha or Athe, to come. 

These two forms could not have been coexistent from the 
beginning. One of them must be regarded as a mutation of 
the other : and general analogy points out n, as the muta* 
tion of K. 

K or n final, has been regarded as equivalent to the re* 
^petition of the second radical; n cannot, therefore, have 
the negative quality of n, but must be of the same nature 
as N. , 

It has the force of that power. It is a demonstrative 



421 

particle^ and, as an initial, it confirms the meaning of the 
other elements ; as, IT Dek, to bruise ; -jin Edek, to bruise, 
crush. jiDD Peke, and "^Dn to change, overtlirow. 

Its name is related to the Chald. adv. xn Ea, Lo, Behold, 
and to the Heb. personal, K>n Eia, he, she, that, this, both 
which may be referred to tlxe verb T\*n Eie, to bcj to come 
to pass* 

I. 

o 

1. As the English pronoun. He, or ee, in meet,. 

2. In uttering this tone, or sound, the tongue is thrust for- 
wards,, till it rests against the lower teeth, at the same time, it 
closes the whole interior of the mouth, except a confined 
and a direct passage for breath, alpng the middle of the 
palate. 

3. By this oral gesture^ and the sound it produces, might 
be naturally described, tlie application or direction of a 
thing, to hspj'oper object ov place. A being, or becoming, 
appropriate or internal — what approaches, is applicable, 
subse?'vient, inherent, &c. 

4. The Bards named this letter, by the mere repetition of 
its power, which, in Welsh, implies into, to, for, tozvards^ 
pertaining to; as,/ fordd, into ?k road; I ddyn, to ox for 
a man; I lawr, tomards^e flat surface — downwards; Mae 
/ mi, there is pertaining to me. 

When used without an external object of direction, it 
refers to solf; as nid av i, I will not go, as to myself; mi 
ddywedais i, I said myself 



422 

In hish, I signifies^ an art or science — skill or knowledge, 
that is appropriated and inherent, and applicable to its 
proper purpose^ an island — that is^ internal, or encom- 
passed (land) ; lozo, inward, 

5. The same force of this power appears in the Greek »&>, 
whence lew and t>?/x»^ to send, to place ; and in its derivative, 
10?, a missile weapon, an arrow, or a spear, which is directed 
to a certain object. It seems to have the same meaning, 
as a prefix; as, i-ccmro), to send to, shoot at, i-a,KKu, to send, to 
aim at. But what moi'e decidedly marks its force, in tl^s 
language, is the circumstance of its forming the termination 
of the dative case singular, in all the various declensions of 
substantives, adjectives, pronouns, and participles, of what- 
ever gender : and its returning again, in the same case, in 
the plural, either alone, or accompanied by the emphatic 
?, or V. When it is recollected, that the termination of 
cases, were originally separable terms, importing relative 
ideas, it must appear, that the framers of the Greek lan- 
guage regarded J, in the same light that our Celtm did, as 
implying an appropriation, application, or direction, to a 
certain object — ijito, to, for, tozcards, pertaining to. The 
preceding observation may be extended to most of the 
Latin declensions. 

6, The symbol of I was the t/ew tree, the peculiar use of 
which, in the construction of the bow, sufficiently cha- 
racterizes the force and the import of this element. The 
name is Idho, perhaps from Id, direct, upright, just — • 
cettainty and precision. Idh implies wse, fruition, apprO' 
priation, and Idho, in Welsh, to him, to or for it. 

Of this symbolical tree, Taliesin says, in the allegorical 
poem, quoted above — 



423 , 

Gwrthodi. gwrthodes, 
Ereill o tjlles^ 
Pan goreu gormes, 
Ym mhlymnwyd maes, 
Gorwythawg Gyw-wydd. 

'*■ Disdaining those who avoided him^ 
And transpiercing others^ 
When he made his inroad. 
In the strife of the field, 
^ Was the fiercely-impelhng yew." 

7. lura,) according to Hesychy imphes a prominent point* 
It may signify direction to a things from »w to send : or 
rather, admitting the general force of the element, let us 
prefix it to wSew, anciently, urau, and we shall have iurua, to 
push forwards, to thrust into, exactly corresponding to the 
Celtic idea, and almost a synonym of the Hebrew 1>, or m> 
Id, or Ide, to ca*A, or slioot at. This verb also implies, to 
praise, to love, to confess; which have no other perceptible 
affinity, with the former appropriations, than that they 
denote actions, peculiarly directed to a discriminate 
object. 

But we must regard T, Id, a hand, as the Hebrew repre- 
sentative of this power ; for, in the Ethiopic alphabet; it is 
called p>, Imen, the right hand. 

The force of ♦, in the Hebrew language, may be inferred 
from its use, in forming the future, or approaching tense of 
all verbs — in forming appellative and proper names, where 
it denotes the application or inherency of a certain quality — ■ 
in pointing out the effect, or consequence of the participle 
active^ when inserted after the first radical^ as from nn 



424 

Rueh, breatkifig, n>^ Odour or exhalation : — in importing 
the effect^ or consequence of the participle passive, wlien 
inserted after the second radical ; as from ni^p Ketsiir, cut 
dozen, 1*^p Ketsir, harvest; and from its being the cha- 
racteristic of the conjugation Hiphil, which imports to 
cause to do, or impHes an especial direction,, or application 
of the agent, or subject, to the action or intent of the 
verb. 

1. As Ho, in hold, or as o, in go. 

2. In uttering this power, alternately with the preceding;^ 
it may be observed, that the organs of speech entirely re- 
verse their position. The tongue which, in pronouncing 
ee, advanced to the teeth, almost closed up the mouth, and 
confined the breath to a direct and narrow passage, is now 
retracted, xetAxe^ from the palate, and leaves the way open. 
The lips, at the same time, are forcibly projected outwards, 
with a large and circular opening. 

The whole mouth is adjusted, as nature itself would dis- 
pose it, for the act of vomiting,, or casting forth. 

3. By this gesture, and its correspondent sound, an idea, 
diametrically opposed to that of /, or ee, Avould be sponta- 
neously expressed — a casting, yielding, ox putting forth — 
an emaciation, or projection, from a certain thing ; instead of 
application, direction, or relation, to a peculiar object. 

4. The power of this letter, which constitutes its Bardic 
name, has appropriations in the Celtic, exactly contrasted 
to those of /; as, TV, I, to, for, towards, into^ pertaining 



425 

to; O, in all the dialects of , from, out of resulting from. 
Irish, I, internal skill, or knowledge ; lozi),jiat, imvard — O, 
an auricle, or ear, an event — what projects, proceeds, or 
emanates from, I-ar, the west, in-going {o^ the sun) 0-ar^ 
the east, out-going ; also^ a voice, effusio?io^ sound. 

These examples may snffice^ to ascertain the fact^ that o, 
in the Celtic, expresses the general idea of casting, yields 
ing, or putting forth— emanation or projection from a 
thing. 

5. In the same light, this power seems to have heen re- 
garded, hy the first framers of the Latin and Greek lan- 
guages. I give tlie following examples. 

0-men, properly, a voice — eifusion of sound — • 

^' Voces hominum qua^ vocant omina.*' Cic. 

0» (AVI, a way, path ; voice, singing, 

0-dor, o;-j:x», o^-^m, scent — issuing from. 

riu, the border of a garment — what extends from — n-aj 
Ov-a^, an ear, or auricle — what projects or extends from — ■ 
whence, Ov-ccrio<;, Orph. extreme, ultimate, il-ovy Ov-um, an 
egg, — ^what is yielded, or put forth, 

0-«?, Ov-is, a sheep — what goes forth from the fold. This 
meaning of the word, may be inferred, from its synonym, 
ir^o^xrov, m w^o ct Qa,\vu, A sheep, in Irish, is Oi, in the old 
Celtic, it seems to have been O, whence the Welsh, O-en, 
the Cornish and Armonian, O-an, and the Irish u-an, cor- 



426 

ruptly for O-arij a lamb^ q, d. a little sheep. An and en are 
diminutive terminations, sufficiently known. 

6. This power was represented by two several symbolical 
plants; and consequently, had two symbolical names* which 
shews that the Celtce, varied their symbols, for local con- 
venience. At the same time, the nature of these symbols 
indicates their scrupulous adherence to the original idea. 

The most general symbol was the furze. The sharp 
prickles of this plant characterize the force of this oral 
sound, as they are not determined to any certain direction, 
but diverge and radiate every way, from the stem. Its 
name is Onn, or Oin. On, and O/w, import any thing lent, 
also, gain profit — what is yielded forth, what emanates or 
results from any thing. Onn, a stone, or a point of a 
rock — saxum; 3. horse — whdX projects, ox springs forth. 

The other symbol was the spindle tree, or prick-wood. 
Its name is Oir, which also signifies an issuing forth, as in 
Oir-thir, the east — the land of the out going — Or and Oir, 
imply a TO zee ; an extreme border oi' edge — what issues or 
projects from. 

Of the furze, Taliesin, says — 

Eithin ni bu vad, 
Er hynny gwerinad. 

'• The furze did not do well. 
Nevertheless let it spread ahroadJ^ 

7» The Greek names of o and s^, when stript of their 



427 

epithets, jAw^ov and y.tyot, amount to nothing more than the 
simple Bardic name of this element. 

The Hebrew y has been regarded as a consonant, repre- 
senting the sound of wg, gn, &c. and it has been variously 
rendered, in proper names, by the translators of the 
Bible into Greek. It may hence be conjectured, that 
it generally retained a strong aspiration, and that its vocal 
power was obscurely uttered, during the latter ages of the 
Jewish nation. 

There are, however, grammarians who acknowledge it, 
as a vowel, equivalent to o, and this opinion is confirmed, by 
its place in the alphabet, and by the frequent representation 
of it, in proper names, by that letter. 

Its name |>y, Oin, which implies a spring, or fountain, 
affords a stronger proof of its real identity with the Celtic 
O: for no object in nature can be more characteristical of 
casting, yielding, or putting forth — emanation, or projec" 
tion. In De Gebelin's Monde Primitif there is a 
Phcenician inscription, in which this letter seems to be in- 
tended, as an image of the sun. It is a circle, encompassed 
with rays. 

In order to discover the force of y, in the structure of 
Hebrezv terms, I would first offer a few instances, in which 
it stands contrasted with the positive K. 

SK Ab, a father, author, cause ; 

;iy Ob, a cloud, a beam — obstruction put forth, 

inK Abed, toperi^h—-f case from exertion; 

n:iy Obed^ to serve, till, labours—put forth, exertion* 



428 

The same contrast returns in, 

^DK Amel, to perish, languish ; 
i>Dy Omel^ to labour, exert, 

>K Ai, an Island — retired place ; 
9)} a heap — prominent, 

*]^X Aleph^ to direct, guide, teach; 

^)} Olep, to cover, conceal — put away, direction*. 

y\\< Arb^ to lie in ambush — meditate itijury, to view; 
!l'iir Orb, to become surety — protect from injury; to 
darken — remove from view* 

The contrast between K and y, in these and similar in- 
stancesj is sufficiently obvious. Tlie former leads on and 
accompanies ^ho, force of the other elements, whether po- 
sitive or negative; the \dXX.ex puts away, puts forth from, or 
out of 

The same property of the initial y may be perceived^ 
where it is not opposed to X ,• as^ 

ntOl Bete, to be confident, rash; 
\0y^ Obet, to borrow upon pledge. 

VTO, Bere, to cleanse, pmnfy ; 

"iny Ober, to pass over, die — clear out — depart. 

pt Zeq, to strain, separate, melt; 

p?3; Ozet\,to fence round— fix, confirm, 

ni^^ Retse, to accept, delight in : to ruH; 

X'\^ Orets, to dismay y terrify^ bruise^ break to-piects». 



429 

Tlie middle y is generally found in verbs, which imply a 
requiring from f2i putting forth, or issuing from, or out of, 
excepting where it is connected with powers, which, of 
themselves, import such actions ; as, 

nyi Boe, to seek, require from; to boil up — issue forth. 

Dyn Bot, to kick. 

na Bith, a house, abode, settlement: 
n;^nBoth, to frighten, disturb — drive from. 

'y^\ Zok, to cut off, Dyr Zom, fury, rage. 

f\^\ Zop, to rage, to he furious. 

nyD Toe, to seduce — lead from. 

ny> Joe, to remove, sweep axcay. 

nDD Kese, to include, contain, DO Kis, a bag ; 
ryD Kos, to be enraged — incontinent. 

n^D Sor, to be violent, tumultuous; a storm, whirlzvind. 

ny2f Tsoe, to spread, stretch out — zi^ander. 

^7^2^ Hsodi, to go, proceed, march — depart. 

X^H Tson, to remove — depart. 

pV2f Tsoq, to cry aloud, exclaim — put forth the voice, 

^j^n Hop, to drop, distil — ruri out. 



430 

nxn Thab, to long for ; 

Syn, Thob, to loathe,, abominate. 

TDD Thue^ to mark, limit ; 
nyn Thoe^ to err, go astray/. 

As tbere are more frequent duplicates of the third radical 
than of any other, it might be conjectured, that it is less 
essential, in fixing, or determining, the import of the word ; 
yet, in this situation, j;, of, from, out of preserves its entire 
force ; as, 

n"7J Gede, to penetrate, cut; 
3;*T^>to cut off, cut aieay from, 

nu Gue, to form into a body, >u Gui, a nation,; 3/U Guo, 
to die, expire — go out, 

ni? Zue, a store-house, grayiary — secure 'place; 
yu Zuo, to move, remove. 



on.. 



n4> Ige, to afflict, grieve; p^ Igo, labour exert i 

nnV Lethe, a wardrobe, a repository ; 
ynV Letho, to pull out, break, 

^[1 Nub, to blossom, germinate; 

3^23 Nebo, to gush out, be ejected, thrown off. 



rv\1 Nue, to dwell; ^^1 NiiO, to wander, move, 

np: Nese, to f r^, pTDt'e ; >'D3 IS^so, to journey, depart. 

y^ Pid, calamity; j;*7D Pedo^to deliver, extricate^, 



431 

n*i9 Pre, to increase, hear fruit; nD Pri, fruit -^ 
y"iD Pro_, to tnake hare, strip off, 

ntt^D Peshe_, to spread, diffuse, grow; 

J^2>D Pesho, to rehel, transgress; go away,. 

^p Kab, SL7neasure, n^p Kabe, a receptacle; 
y^p Kabo^ to pierce, hereave, roh, spoil, 

bT}i> Ke\, to assemble, gather together; 
ybp Kelo, to sling, a slinger, carver, graver — throwing, 
cutting out. 

Such examples regularly occur, to the end of the 
alphabet. 

U. 

1. As Hoo, in hoof, or as oo, in food, 

2. In uttering this sound, the organs of speech are nearly 
in the same situation as they were in o, excepting that the 
lips are not so forcibly projected, are nearly closed, and 
somewhat raised from the exterior gums, so as to form the 
whole mouth into a complete cavern, with a low entrance, 
through which the breath reverberates, with a hollow 
sound. 

3. There is, therefore, a specific difference between tlie 
powers of o and u. The former expresses an emanation, or 
projection; the latter naturally describes a circumfusion, 
an envelope, or loose covering, consequently msidie hollow- 
ness, capacity, ox penetrability. 



452 

4* The B>ardie name is oo, or zo, which^ at preseitt, cdn-' 
stitutes no complete term, in the Celtic language. I must- 
here remark, that there seems to be some error, in the con- 
ception of our late Bards, respecting this vocal power. 
They regard it not as a primitive, but as an inflection or 
derivative of o ; yet it is distinguished in their alphabet, by 
a simple character, the general criterion of their radical 
letters, whilst the character of o is an evident compound 
of their a and broad u; and the Welsh language, in more 
than a thousand instances, regularly contracts azo into o. 
The broad ii, on the other hand, has frequently usurped the 
province of the ancient o, to the detriment of etymology. 
Notwithstanding this irregularity, the genuine force and 
import of u may be distinguished, in a multitude of very 
simple terms. 

Thus, in Welsh-- 

Hu, 2X1 overlooker f ox guardian: Hud, illusion : Hudd, 
a covert, shade: Huv, a mantling^ or covering: Hiig, a 
coat, loose gown: Hid, a cover, coverlet: Hun, a Jit of 
sleep, slumber: Hzcv, a hood, or cozcl: Hzs/S, a covering, 
housing, horsecloth, 

U, or W, retains its peculiar force, with difterent initials 
and finals; as, jBrc, an ove7'seer : Bzol, a round, hollow 
body: Bzi)r, an enclosure: Bwt, a. hole, concavity/: Cw, 
Kon^avity : Czoh, concavity, a cup : Czech, any round hollozo 
'vessel, a boat : Czvd, a bag, pouch: Cudd, darkness, gloom : 
Cwv, rising over, compressing : Czi)ll, the stomach : Czvm, a 
hollozs), shelter: Czcr, a border, nook: Czct, a cot, sty: 
Du, black: Dzvb, mortar, plaster. 



433 

Fa, a veiling over : Fa-ant, disguise : Fdg, delusion, dh^ 
guise, S^c. to the end of the alphabet. 

So, in Irish, uagh, a. grave, den, cave: Um, about, sur^ 
rounding : umha, a cave, a hollow^ 

Corn, U-ag, W^ Gwag, empty, hoilozc, &C* 

These words possess no elementary power^ in common^, but 
II, or w, yet the idea of circumfusion, enveloping, covering, 
or hoUowness, uniformly pervades them all. It consequently 
appears^ that such are the general expressions of this /io/Zorc; 
sounds in the Celtic language* 

5. And it had evidently the same force, in the Latin and 
Greek. Hence \o), to rain, to circumfuse, or sprinkle over, 
>ccvu, (fiK)m a, priv. and'tw) to dri/, or parch itp — to deprivt 
of moisture; a(p-vu, to draw water, &c. 

Water being a mo?'' penetrable substance, and very apt by 
its nature, to overwhelm, or diffuse itself about other bodies^ 
lias appropriated many terms which, primaril}^, implied cir- 
cunifusioji, covering, hoUowness, &c. in general; as, 

\^-u^y\'^-oi;y\a-a.^zvater ; Jiu^mor, s'ud-or, u-dus, (p. uidus) 
Scc'v? (y-t;) s'as, a swine — delighting in mire, or moisture. 
Yet several compounds, or derivatives of 't;w, import an 
enveloping, or covering, where water is not concerned ; as, 
€-voj, to stop up, to cover : y.~vu to carry in the womb ; ^-vu, to 
wet, soak, drown; also, to put on a garment — go under any 
envelope, or cover, whence, sv-ovu, to put on, wito-^vu, £y.-h0, 
to put off. The Latin tongue rejects the adventitious d, 
in exuo, exuviae, 

.-EQ 



434 

6. The symbol of this power was the Heath, It is the 
peculiar property of this plant and well known^ to diffuse 
itself, over the siuface of the earth, to which it forms a loose 
and very hollow covering. Its name is U?', which term has 
also the following significations. Noble, generous — supe- 
rior in quality ; green, verdure — which spreads over, in- 
vests the trees and fields — mould, earth — which diffuses it- 
self over tlie surface — a border, or brim — which extends 
round — mischief, slaughter — which overwhelms : In short, 
any thing which covers, overwhelms, or spreads over, and 
therefore, zoater is included amongst its meanings, as ap- 
pears from the following derivatives ; ur-ach, a water vessel, 
bottle, pail, bucket. Uir-neis, a furnace, or boiler; uir- 
treana, pools left in the sand, at low water. 

W. C. A. B'wr, zcater : C. ur-anach, a frog, q. d, 
aquatic. In the Basque, or old Cantabrian tongue, nra 
\s zoater; hut the term seems to regard this element, only in 
its covering, or circiimfusive capacity/; for, in the same 
language, iiria, is a surrounding fence, a walled city.. 
T^, ov^ and ur, conveyed the same general mieaning, in Greek 
and Latin, as appears from v^-ov, a. szvarm ; y^-^ov, a honey- 
comb; v^^-ic, a basket : or, with the diphthong ov, which ge- 
nerally represented the primary, and proper power of k, 
ov^ oq, n prosperous wind: a guard: ov^-ccvoq, heaven, the air ; 
tlie roof of the mouth — ^what covers over: orp-ov, urine, 
zvater, Lat. ur-ina. But ur, in Latin, as in Celtic, sig- 
nified water, in general. Hence, ur-ceus a pitcher, pot 
for water: Ur-na, a water vessel; a measure for liquids: 
•UT-ino, to dive, swim under water: ur-ica hurt coming to 
corn from too much rtioisture. These last words intimate, 
that ur, as a principle of the Latin tongue, regards water 
as a circumfusion — enveloping, or covering. Ur-o, to burn, 
or overwhelm with fire, comes back to the general meaning 



435 

<3f ur. Tigurium, a cottage, is, probably, a Celtic word, 
for tigh, in Irish, is a house, and wr, heath, or earth, Aur^ 
um, gold — W. Armor, aur , a-ur, that which covers, or is 
spread over the surface. 

This precious metal may have been so named, from its 
ancient use in overlaying. Should this name be referred 
rather to niN, Aur, to shine, or give light, it amounts to the 
same thing — a circumfusion of rays. 

That xpy?o^ originally meant an overlay, will, perhaps, ap- 
pear probable, if it be compared with certain other Greek, 
and Celtic, terms ; as, %?oo« x^ou?, x?^« 5 W. Croen ; Corn. 
Crohan; Arm.Crochen; I. Croione, r skin, or hide; W. 
Cr^s, a sA/r^; (envelope;) ^r/w. Cres, a garment; I. 
Creas, a girdle — x§°*> X?^f*'=*^ colour, an outside appearance. 
These words, in their sound, and in their meaning, have an 
pbvious affinity with each other, and with x?t^?°?. They all 
present the idea of compressing, enveloping, or covering. 

Of the heath, which is the symbol of u, Taliesin, says, 

Grug bu ddyddamnad, 
Dy werin swynad, 
Hyd gw;yr erlyniad. 

*' The heath w^as a defender on all sides — 
*^ Thy squadron was protected, 
" Till pursuit turned aside." 

7. % Van, or u, in Hebrew, constitutes a particle, sig- 
nifying, and, for, therefore, with, 8cc. including and con- 
nectiug the subjects of discourse. 

E e 2 



436 

\) nuy is rendered a hoohy the capital of a pillar — ^what 
goes round or covei^s, 

1 Occupies tlie place of a radical,, only in the middle of 
Hebrew verbs ; but in this situation, it seems to impress the 
same generalddea of circumfusioriy passing on the surface, 
^covering, inside hollozi^ness, which we have remarked, in the 
ancient languages of Europe, The following examples, 
in which 1 stands before 3, may suffice to ascertain this fact, 
and furnishes additional proofs that the Hebrew lan- 
guage arose from principles, more simple and natural, than 
those roots, which have generally been the last resort of 
etymology; and that these principles are the very same 
which the Celtic dialects, so eminently claim. 

n*J^ Aub, a conjuror, a ventriloquist — who covers, or con- 
ceals his mystery — a bottle, 

nn Bub, to be hollow, to mahe hollow. 

DU Gub, a cistern, cave, scale of a fish; pride; a locust. 

^n Dub, a bear, arctus, mt Zub, to Jlozo, filth, 

mn Heub, to be hid, a debtor, guilty, (n priv.) 

'2)'0l\ih, good, godly — of onj superior quality, 

y\'^ Nub, to blossom, germinnte — cover zcithjiowers, Sec. 

11^ Oub, to cloud, cover, 

nvii^ Shub, and Chald. mn Thub, to render, return, fc^ 
uard, reply — cover a former action. 



437 

Uhy in the Celtic, however connected^ gives the idea of a 
covering, ot}er whelming, circumfusive thing, 

W. wb, violence; oppression : B' zvb-ach, a bugbear, ter- 
rifier : Cwb, a cup, concavity, a hut, 

Dwb, mortar^ plaister : Gwb, a moan^ a hollow cry, 

Irish, Bub-tadh, threatning, frawning upon, 

Bubh-ach, sly, crafty, wily — covering his designs. 

Cubh-ar, froth : Cub-et, scorn, superciliousness, 

Dubhy black, dark, ink; great — superior, 

Dubh-ach, a tub: Dubh-ar, a hook, snare; spider* 

Dub-la, a sheath, 2l case, 

Fub-al, a tent: Fubha, a scar, incrustation^ 

Gubh-a, mourning; s. bottle 

Lub, craft, deceit, subtlety; sl plait, or fold, 

Kubh'a, a hurt, wound: Subh-a, moisture, juice, sap,. 
Tub-ag, a tub, vat^ 

Tubh-a, a shew, appearance : Tubhe, thatch, 

Soj in Latin, Bubo, an owl — covering itself, 

Cubo, to lie along or upon: Dubium, a doubt — obscu-* 



438 

rity : Nubes, a cloud: Nubo, to marry a man-^to t^eil: 
Pubes — suber, a cork : Tubers fungus^ excrescence ; Uber, 
an udder, fruitfulness. 

I offer a few examples^ in which 1, stands betweeu vari'* 
ous initials and finals. 

yh Lug^ a measure of liquids^ 

:ilD Sug, Chald. to inclose, force rounds 

*71D Sud^ secret, council, company, 

•712; Tsudj to lie in Zi)ait; a 7iet, 

*^y\V Shud_, to plaister : niV Lut^ to cover, hide^ 

jnVii* Shut^ to go about, view round, 

■^ID Suk^ to anoint, cover : "|1D Puk^ pumt. 

"^W Shuk, to hedge; '^ito Thuk^ covered, wickedness^ 
b)'D Kul, to measure, contain, 

bllii Tsui, to shroud, shade, cover, 

b)p Kul, a noise, thunder, 

b)W Shul, the border, or fringe of a garment, 

DV Jum, day ; D13 Num, slumber. 

DID Pum, Chald, a mouth, cavity : jv Jun^ mire^ mud^ 



439 

])D Pun, dubious: DD Cus^ a covered cup, an owL 

yi3 NuOj to move, wander — jjass over, 

*]U Gulp, to shut, inclose — cover, 

*\\)J Oxip, to fly, flutter ; darkness; ^n eyelid, 

f)l!f Tsup^ to inclose, overspread, overlay, overflow^ com* 
prehejid; scorn; a honeycomb, 

»]1p Kup, to surround, encompass, inclose^ 

^yw Shupj (chald) to hide^ to cover, 

V1D Muts, husks, chaff: ^1D Puts^ to overflow. 

'Y'^ Shuk, to overflow ; to desire, &c» 

When due allowance has been made for the diversities of 
the meanings produced by the force of the initial, and final 
letters, it must be observed, that the general idea oicircumfu- 
sioti, wandering over, covering — or the relative idea of inside 
hollowness, or capacity, presents itself in every one of 
these examples, Which admit of the middle 1. I, therefore, 
deem that element, an essential part of the terms, 
though it be often dispensed with, in the forming the 
verbs, &c. 

It will be remarked, that, in expi*essing the Hebrezo words 
by Roman characters, I constantly give the same power to 
each letter, without regard to the masoretic 'points, I mean 
to enter into no debate respecting them, or to deny, 
that they convey the authentic pronuaciation of the Jcxvs^ 



440 

during certain ages; but^ in a work of this kind^ which en- 
ters into the elementary principles of language^ their use is 
inadmissible. The Hcbrezo letters^ like all others, must 
originally have been symbols of certain, and appropriate 
sounds. The Jews have preserved the ancient orthography 
of their sacred records ; but the tumultuary circumstances 
of that nation, must have introduced numberless anomalies 
and corruptions of pronunciation, whilst they, as yet, con- 
tinued to speak Hebrew* How abundantly must those ir- 
regularities have been multiplied afterwards I 

I trust, the examples I have adduced, under the vowels, 
will suffice to prove — that the Hebrew and European vowels, 
which I have classed to&ether, were originally the same, as 
to their main force and Effect, 

That the oriential and European languages arose from the 
same principles ; which principles are founded in nature — 
and that, however vocal sounds may have been varied by 
dialects, or disregarded by philologists, they were once 
understood to impress a tone upon the meaning, as well as 
upon the sound of the words, 



441 



Sect. V. Of the names of the consonants , and the natural 
force and expression of their respective powers, 

X HIS subject I shall touch briefly, at present^ as it is my 
intention, to subjoin some examples of the force of the con- 
sonants^ in connection with the several vowels respectively. 



B. 



This articulation is formed, by an easy and a natural 
opening of the mouth, without any forcible impulse of 
breath, or protrusion of the lips, or of any other vocal 



It may, therefore, be naturally applied to express the idea 
of simple perception — the being of any thing, in a 
quiescent state or condition, and hence receive the following 
appropriations. — Being, to be, thing, or what is, condition, 
or state of being. 

Its name, in the Bardic alphabet, is Bi. This term, 
in Welsh, signifies, tiyzV/ be; in Irish, hath been: in both 
languages, it is the root of the essential verb, to be. 

Bi, seems to have had the same meaning in the formation 
of the Greek and Latin tongues ; whence Bt-oo;, to live, or 
exist: Bt-c?, life — existence; sustenance, or means of being; 
goods, or necessaries of life, 

Lat. JB/ro^ to live ; Bita, life, Bixit and Bita, are 



442 

still found in Roman inscriptions^ and in some of their 
manuscripts, for vixit and vita. The Latin v is frequently 
a mutation of B. 

The symbol of this power was the Birch, which a local 
necessity seems to have substituted, for the Palm. Its 
name, in Irish, is Beith, which implies, also, to he, heingy 
essence, existence. 

The term may be resolved 'mioBe—^is — and ite — similitude, 
or ith,-^sustaining. Perhaps the Birch was so named, from 
the circumstance of its re-producing its species, from the 
fibres of the root. 

The character istical property, which entitled it to re- 
present the power of B, and the idea of existence, was not 
considered, by the British Bards, as very obvious; for 
Taliesin says — 

Bedw, er ei vawr-vryd, 
Bu hwyr gwisgyssyd; 
Nid er ei lyvrder, 
Namyn er ei vawredd. 

'' The Birch, notwithstanding his great intent — 
It was long ere he was arrayed ; 
Not because of his dullness, =" 

But because of his greatness." 

The names of nO, Bith, and B»3m, are similar to the 
Celtic Beith, in their orthography, and, perhaps, in their 
primary import. The force of n, in designing a limit, or 
inclosure, will be shewn hereafter ; and, therefore, nO, a 
house, ox abode, may be defined a limit, ox place of beings 



443 

or existing, Bita, Bsita, or Br>ru, in old Greek, may have 
been the same as Biorv, life, and yet have had a retrospect to 
BaK, or BenTu, the palm branch. 



Pronounced as K, or as C in come. 

This articulation is made, by fixing the root of the 
tongue, firmly, against the root of the palate, so as, entirely, 
to fill, and close up the interior part of the mouth, till 
breath, forces its way with strong impulse. 

It has already been shewn, that such an oral gesture, and 
its correspondent sound, attend of course any efforts to 
hold, or contain, a large mass with both arms, and also to 
catch, reach, or touch sl distant object. 

This tone, therefore, is not limited to the expression of 
one simple idea; but naturally describes a holding, contain- 
ing, or comprehending — a reaching, touching, or catching-^ 
attaining to, or apprehending. 

Its name, in the lots of Druidism is Ci (Ki) 

The term, in Irish, imports to perceive, or apprehend, to 
ue; to lament, or feel the touch of woe, 

Ci-aw, in Welsh, is to perceive, comprehend, or ap- 
prehend, 

^^ Rhyveddav na chi-awr.'* Tal. 

'* I wonder it is not perceived'* 



444 

The root JCi, then, signifies, zoill perceive, comprehend, 
or apprehend. Hence, in Welsh, Cornish, and Armorican, 
a dog, is called Ci, trom the quickness of his senses, or 
from his use in catching and holding. 

The symbol of this power was the Hazel, a tree which 
collects its fruit into clusters, holds it in a deep calix, and 
finally, shuts it up, in an impervious case, or shell. Its 
name, in Irish and Welsh, is Coll, which, in the former 
dialect, signifies ahead, also the end of a thing; hence, 
coll means loss, destruction — ending, or conclusion. Col, 
in Welsh, signifies a projecting bod^, a shRrp hillock, or 
peak ; a promontory ; a sting, or point. 

But, agreeably to the genius of the Celtic language, col, 
or coll, may be regarded as mutations of cul, or cwll,. 
Avhich are highly characteristic of the hazel, and, of the 
import of this elementary sound, 

I. Cul, custody; a chariot; a cover: Culla, a hood, or 
cover-— W, Cwll, the stomach — receiver ; also, the heady 
whence Cwccwll, (Cwd-cwll) a cap, or bonnet, q. d» 
headcase. 

Hebrew VlD Cul, to comprehend, contain, include* 

Of this symbol, Taliesin pertinently says — 

Collwydd, barnyssid 
Eiryv dy argyfryd. 

** Hazel, it might be deemed. 
Thy comprehensions are numerous/' 



445 

The name of Kaw^ra, was, probably, equivalent to itu[xvf), 
a bending round, an inclosing^ or to kcc^-^x, a chest, coffer, 
box, capsa, 

x*had a similar meaning : %ta, a lurking hole, a receptacle, 
from ;);^aft; (p. %i&;) to Ao/<^, contain: Eustath. Nearly allied 
to these, a^nd to each other, were the Caph and the Koph of 
the Hebrew : n^DD Caphe, to curve, inflect, whence f]D Cop, 
the hollow of any thing, a cz^p, t^e-sseZ of capacity ; pi. D>DD 
Caphim, caves, caverns, receptacles. 

^)p Kup_, to surround, encompass. 

We may, then, regard C, Q, K, X, D and p, as originally 
one element, expressing the general ideas of containing, or 
comprehending, and touching, attaining to, or apprehending. 



D. 



The articulation of this letter, before a vowel, is formed, 
and uttered, by closing the edges of the tongue to the 
upper gums, throughout their whole extent, and suddenlj- 
laying it open, either wholly or in part, according to the 
nature of the vowel. Before e and i, only the tip requires 
to be removed ; but before the broad vowels, the separation 
must be complete. 

In describing, by gesture, and communicating an idea of 
expansion, OY unfolding; the hands are brought close to- 
gether, and laid flat, and then suddenly spread, or ex- 
panded different ways. A natural aptitude, to express 
ideas by the voice, would spontaneously dispose the organs 
of speech^ at the same instant, to mimic this gesture, the 



446 

necessary consequence of which would be the utterance of 
the power, D, accompanied by some vocal sound. 

We may, therefore, consider this power, as descriptive, 
naturally, of expanding, spreading, unfolding, laying opm, 
distribution, or division. 

Its Bardic name is Di, which, at present, is used, in the 
7FeM language, only as a privative prefix; as, achaws,dk 
cause, di-achazDS, causeless — separate from a cause : Achles, 
succour, di-achles, unsuccoured — separate from succour, &c. 

Di had anciently other appropriations. It was a term for 
the Deity, instead of which we now have Dai, the disposer, 
the distributer, Di, also, implied day, as it still does, in the 
Armorican, 

Dia, in Irish, signifies God; c?ay— t-what unfolds, lays 
open. >*7, Di, in Chaldaic, signifies tiie Omnipotent, as it 
also does in Hebrew, with the relative w prefixed. It 
was therefore an epithet of the Divine Being, in the early 



The symbol of D was the expansive oak. Its name was 
Duir, which may be a compound of Du, spreading over, 
and air, he arose. This derivation is confirmed by the 
Welsh Dwyr, a rising and expanding — -the dawning of light : 
Dwyre, to rise into view, expand, open, unfold. An old 
^ard says, of the blade of corn — 

" Dewr egin dwyreoedd yn das/^ 

^^ The vigorous shoot expansively rose into a pile." 



447 

^f tliis symbol Taliesin speaks, in the following remark- 
able terms — 

Derw, Buanawr, 

Rhagddaw cryneu nev a Llawr: 

Gelyn glew — Dryssawr 

Ei enw, ym peullawr. 

^^ The oak, the mover / 

Before him heaven and earth would tremble — « 

A severe foe. — ^The door-guard 

Is his name, in the table book,'^ 

We may here observe, that the Bard, speaking as a 
Druid, describes the oak as the supreme Being. Max* 
Tyrius, says, that the old Celta, worshipped a huge oak as 
Jupiter — they regarded it, as a symbol of the Diety. — 
Taliesin, then, delivers the genuine doctrine of the Druids. 
But he is now treating of the oak, as the symbol of the 
element D : the same term, Di, as I have already shewn, 
was the name of the Deity, and of that letter. In order 
to comprehend his meaning, wlien he says its name was a 
door, or door guard, we must recollect that Dwas anciently 
jdistinguished by a term, which also signified a door, or 
any board, table, or open surface. Its Hebrew name, n^*7 
Daleth, means a door, and its character, in some old 
alphabets, evidently represents a door or portal. See Fry's 
Pantograph, p. l6£, &c. Of these circumstances, it ap- 
pears that Taliesin was duly aware. 

The Greek name As^t^ implies a board, fable, or open 
surface. Hence hxru^iov, h>.riov, ^6^To?, a tablet, a table-book. 
I think these were not so named from their resemblance of 
the character a, as some etymologists pretend, but from 



448 

their expansive surface, and their imfolding. The terms 
seem to be related to ^rt^ouy to unfold, declare, make known $ 
h>iO<;, open, known, manifest. This conjecture is reinforced 
by the Celtic language^ which certainly contains many 
Greek primitives. 

Irish, Dail, he hath opened, unfolded, given, distributed, 
divided: Dailthe, (part of the same verb) unfolded, di" 
vided, dealt, distributed. 

Welsh, Delltu to open, split, divide ; make into shingles^ 
flakes, or laths: Dellt, Lanimce, fakes, shingles, split 
boards, lattices, lath. These words^ surely, have no rf- 
ference to the character A. 

Sclavon. Djeliti, to divide; Dil, sl portion ; 
Diglien, divided, laid open. 

See De Gebelin, Monde Prim. V. III. 195- 

G. 

Pronounced as in Go. 

The meclianical formation of this power^ and its natural 
aptitude to describe the ideas of appetite, a grasp, adhesion, 
cohesion, mutual attachment, compensation, &g. have al- 
ready been treated of, in Sect. I. 

Its Bardic name is Gi (yT) which implies a sinew, or 
tendon— the cause of connection and cohesion in the 
joints. , ■ 

lis, symbol was the Ivt/, a plant peculiarly disposed to 
embrace, and adhere to the tree^ by which it is supported^ 



449 

fts a compensation for the favour. The Irish name is Gorf, 
which term also signifies corn in the eair, itiutually cohering 
— and it seems, anciently, to have had the same meaning 
in Greek ; for the plant, yo^ni, had the name qTc(,x^uh<;, from 
its resemblance to an ear of corn, Gort also means hunger, 
or appetite J in general: Gortuch, eager , greedy, desirous; 
a greyhound — so named from his eager pursuit — whence the 
vertagus of the Romans, 

The Greek name, Ta^jii^sc, must he referred to 70^0,-, a 
wedding, zvedlock — mutual cohesion, or attachment, ra/z-so; 
is, perhaps, a compound of yu, cerfe and ^xu, vehementer, 
cupio, quoero. If so, the name is perfectly synonymous 
to Gort, 

The Hehrezo name ^d:i Gimel, signifies a camel, no unapt 
symbol o^ mutual attachment ;-^but the term implies retribu- 
tion, or compensation, in general. 



This power, whether expressed, as in English words, or 
aspirated, as the JVelsh LI, is formed by fixing the tip of the 
tongue against the upper gums, whilst both sides of it hang 
opew, suffering the mr to he poured out, aud equally dispers- 
ed, through all the extremities of the mouth. Such an action 
of the vocal organs naturally accompanies the act of throwing 
open the hands, and the arms, to describe solution, effusion, 
evajiescence, open space, gliding, softness, smoothtiess, levity. 

The Bardic name of the letter, is Lit, or Li, which term 
conveys the ideas above specified ; as, in JVelsh, Lli,fux, or 
^oaJ,sfre(z//2^effusion of thatwhiehisfluid;— gliding element 

r f 



450 

•^LliV (lli-av) ajioed, deluge^ Sec, LUvo, to Jlow, oterflom; 
also, to dye, or colour — give an external hue : Llliw, colour; 
whence Liveo, Livor, Lividus, &c. 

Llyvn, (Lli-min) smooth, sleek, soft, slippery, plain: 
JLly-u, Lly-vu, to lick with tlie tongue : Llyn (lli-in) liquor, 
drink, a lake, pool, pond. Armor. Li-va, to dye, tinge : 
Li-ou, colour. Idnya, to JI ozo : Liiw at, inundation, Irish, 
Li, the sea, water ; colour: Li-ach, a spoon — from its use. 
Li-a, £i stream, flood : Li-athram (W. Llithraw) to slide, 
glide, Lin, a pool; flax — smooth and soft — Li-omb, he 
hath filed, polished, made smooth. 

Li-on, liquor, fluid j he hdith. flowed: Ligh, he hath 
ticked, &c. 

Gr. At'fjiViv, a port, haven — smooth z&ater : A»p^ a pool, or 
lake : 'At^w, smooth, sleek : ^i-aw, >^ta^uj, I scatter, mix. 

Latin, Li-aculiim, a joiner's plane — the smoother. 

Li-hella, a line, level: (W. Uiv. I. Liom), afik, polish: 
Limo,! polish, smooth, 

Linum, Aiwp, W. Llin, I. Lin, flax. 

Liquo, I melt, dissolve, liquor, a liquid, hQ, 

The Romans called this letter El; hut I must observe^ 
pnce for all, that the initial E, in the names of their semi- 
vowels, is a mutatio7i of A. A simple negative, ox privative, 
(which E is found to have been) could not, when prefixed 
to the articulation^ haveexpressedthe positive force of any 



451 

letter. Whereas, on the contrary, it may be perceived, that 
Al does represent the perfect nature of this element, in 
Latitij as well as in other languages ; as, 

Hal'O, to breathe, or steam: Halitus, breath, vapour- 
solution, effusion of subtle fluid, evanescent matter. And 
this Hal is actually changed into Ilel, in anhelo, anheluSi 
Ala, the wing gf a bird, metaphorically, of an army: 
Alacer, cheerful, brisk, moving lightlj/, &c. 

b^ Al, vain, nothing — ^evanescent. 

r\biij Al-e, to hozrl, swear — send forth wind. 

AX-ao|!Aat, I zcander, move about loosdy—^vagor, 

AXa;?, a court, open space : AXia., zmrmth, heat of the sun^-^ 
subtle effusiout 

Welsh, Armor, Al-an, breath — vapour, Al, and, by 
mutation. El, an angel, spirit — evanescent being. 

Irish, Al, nurture; he hath nourished — whence, 

Latin, Ah, I administer nurture — 'which diffuses itself 
through the whole frame. 

The symbol of this power was the Quickbeam ; the pe- 
culiar quality of this tree, v.hich entitled it in that spirit of ana- 
logy, to such a distinction, was, perhaps, its flexibility, or lax 
texture. Its name is Luis, which also implies drink— fluid } 
an effusion of herbs, or weeds; an open hand. The term iS/ 
i)erhaps, a compound of Lu, and the substantive verb li 

F f 2 



452 

Im, — wiall, light, thirty swift, Lua, wafer, thin glid- 
ing fluid. W. Llwys, a shedding , pouring forth. 

The Welsh call the Quickheam, Cerddin, a plural form 
of Cardden, — zvhat goes away, vanishes. 

Of this symbol^ and of the willow, which is the symbol of 
s, Taliesin, only, says — 

Helyg a cherddin 
Buant hwyr ir vyddyn. 

'^ The Willozi^s ^nd Quickbeams, 
Came late into the army." 

Aa^ijOa, probably^ had the same general import as^ Dor^ 
%u,^^a,^iovj a skiff, or light, gliding vessel, or A«//,7ra?, T^ctfA'jrx^u, 
a torch, or lainp — pouring forth a subtle diffusion. The 
Latin verb Latnbo, seems best to express the force of this 
e^kment. iDb Lamed, the Hebrew name of L, signifies^ 
to learn, or ./e«cA— perhaps^ to lay open. 



M. 

The most natural and obvious gesture^, to^ntimate^ that one 
substance is entirely shut up, inclosed and comprehended 
another_, must have been, to form both hands into cuplike 
figures, and placing one upon the otlier, present them to 
notice, with significant looks, or nods of the head. 

As it was intended that man should learn to communicate 
his ideas, by the voice; the organs of speech would join 
voluntarily, in these efforts to describe. The lips would close 
together, the cheeks would swell moderately, into the imita- 



453 

tion of capacity, and breath would endeavour to attract 
notice^ by sounding the power of M, through the nostrils. 
Were a dumb person to point at a chest, or vessel, and then 
repeat his descriptive gesture, it would, in general, be at- 
tended with such a descriptive sound : and we should readily 
comprehend his meaning, that the chesty or vessel, con- 
tained something. 

M is, therefore, a natural expression of comprehendingy 
including, embracing, or surrounding. 

Its Bardic name was Mi, which appears anciently to have 
signified any thing that includes, or comprehends ; as, the 
bed of a river, in Llyn-vi, Tei-vi, Dy-vi, &c. The Welsh 
V, is a mutation of M, or B. Min (mi-in) the edge, or 
hank of a river, an edge, the lip, the mouth. Mid, an m- 
closure, a vessel of capacity ; Midd, an inclosed place, &c. 
But the general import of the term will appear, more 
clearly, from the Irish^ 

Mi, a mouth — what comprehends, contains. 

Mi-ach, a bag, or budget — including, containing, 

Mi-adh, honour, ornament — what surrounds. 

Mi-an, mind, zoill, desire, purpose, intent, 

Mi-anach, ore ; comprehending in itself* 

Mi-as, a dish, charger, &c* 

The Romans called this letter Em, for Am : See under 
X. Hebrew DK, Am, smother, containing within herself, cm^ 



454 

bracing, Latin i Am, a mother, whence Amita. ^' Am, 
praepositio loquelaris significat circiim.'^ Festiis. The an- 
cients said Am urhem, for circum urbem, — and the Hke. 

Hama J a leather bucket ; a hook, 

Hamus, a hook; ring; kitchen bason- — surrounding — 
containing; Amboyboth; -a. pulpit; di cup — comprehending, 

Am-o, I love, c^er?s/j-^cmbrace witli desire. 

Amblo, (am-hi) to court — be compassing, &c. 

Greek,, A/^a, together with — comprehending. 

/iy.-cx,^oty an aqueduct, sewer — surrounding channel. 

Ay^-cc^cc, di chariot : Af^-'^v^, upot, aciip, 

AjM)7^ a sickle — -going rounds whence x^^ccu), I reap, 

AfJi.-(pi, about, round-about : uyi.-(pu^ both, &c. 

Welsh, Am, about, round about. It has this meaning 
out of composition, and prefixed to some hundreds of words, 
4- am, (av) a river , 

,' ■■>■ 

\. Ham, (Lib. Land.) summer, season, 

Cornish, Am, an embrace: umbos, a covenant, contract. 
Irish, Am, time, season, com'eniency — what comprehends— 
heuce^ Tenip'US, 



455 

Ama, a horse collar, Amh, ^. fishing net; the ocean — 
whence the dim : am-an, amh-ainj sl river, &c. 

The symbol of this power was the vme, which zcinds 
routidy and embraces its supporter, and is the mother of the 
most generous of Hquors. 

Its name is Muin, which signifies also, the neck, the 
back — pliable parts — he hath taught, or instructed — made 
to comprehend. 

Muin-tir, comprehension of the land— people, men, por- 
rents, family, clan, tribe, 

Muin-eog, enjoyment, possession* 

Welsh, Mwj/n, the ore of any metal; also^ enjoyment^ 
possession, use, &c. 

The meaning of the Greek Mv is sufficiently obvious,, 
from [Avuj to shut up, close the lips, or eyelids; i^-vsa, to 
initiate, introduce to the sacred mysteriesi /^Avp^^o?, an inward 
recess, &c. 

The Hebrew name D'D Mitn, signifies water, which the 
ancients regarded as the mother of all things, comprehend^ 
ing their first principles. See Gen. i^ 

The Britons, having, probably, no vines before the com- 
ing of the Romans, changed this symbol for the raspberry 
tree, of which Taliesin, says— 



456 

Avanwydd gwneitlijt, 
Ni gorau emwyt^ 
Er amgelwch bywyd. 

^' The raspberry tree caused. 

That the best of thiags should be tasted^ 

For the protection of hfe.'* 

N. 

When we put forth the hand, or extend the finger, to 
dhcriminate a simple, or minute object, the eye is naturally 
directed the same way : we look stedfastly at that which we 
wish another to observe. The tongue, at the same instant, 
spontaneously mimics the action of the hand and the eye, 
by thrusting forward its point, in the same direction, till it 
rests against the upper gums. The breath, being denied a 
passage through the mouth, tends towards the same spot, 
through the nostrils, with the sound of //, or Ha, 

This sound is, then, a natural interjection for look I 
lo there! and it is as naturally answered by M, or Hm — I 
olscrve, or comprehend. 

May we not, then, pronounce, that the power ??, is a n§L- 
tural expression of an object, subject, thing produced, or 
nezi) — discriminated, or simplified— X\\Q selfsame, simple, 
small ^ 

Its Bardic name is Nz. The most general appj-opriation 

of this term is, as a negative, not : but this is, by the same 

kind of figure which produced sAxxi^ra, from £Aa;^»;To?, 

mini me from miminus, and the French negative, point and 

j3as, from nouns of a confined meaning. 



457 

Ni signified a particular thing; as in Taliesins, Nigorau, 
the best thing. 

In composition^ it still implies a particular j an identical 
thing, or subject ; as^ Dyrys, intricate, perplexed ; Dyrys^ 
nij intricacy, perplexity — the intricate self. 

The true import of this simple term appears, more clearly, 
in the Irish, 

Ni, he hath made, formed, produced, 

Ni, a thing— the subject formed, or produced. 

Nigh, Si daughter ; Nia, d^ sister's son, 

W. Nith, a niece; Nai, a nephew — progeny in the 
family. 

W. Nyth: Corn. 4^ Nid: Armor. Neith: 

I. Nead (p. ni-ad) Nidus, a nest — a new construction, or 
construction for young, progeny, as noqqia, Ho<;^oi, a nest, a 
young bird, from vso^, nezv, fresh, young, &c. 

The Romans called this letter En, and they used the in- 
teijection jEw / Lo ! Behold! in pointing out, or discrimi- 
nating. 

The Irish say, Enne, for an-ni, Lo! Behold the thing! 
W. Ena, there, lo there ! 

Gr. tv, one, the same, the individual thing — there, the 
foint, of place, or time. 



458 

, Ciiald. \n En, behold I Heb, n^n Ene, here! there! be- 
hold! but in all these instances, jG is a mutatioft of A: 
whence, we may observe, that these mutations began t© 
take place very early, and became widely extended. 

The original An, is still to be traced — Heb, \i^ An, when, 
zi)here — point of time, or place, niK Ane, to give cause, or 
occasion; to produce; to happen, 

Gr. ccv if, granting /Aaf ; ava singly, one, by one; through 
— from one to one, otvac, ava;, upwards, rising into view — • 
avvojy I make, perform, produce, obtain, 

Lat. An7 an ne? that thing! that particular? 1, C, 
An, theofie — discriminating, simplifying. 

W. Han, that proceeds from, is produced, nezi), discri- 
minate — prep. /"rom, out of, Hanvod (han-bod) to be 
derived from, to become existent, Han has the same 
meaning — simple origination, in a multitude of compounds. 
See Ozvens Diet. 

The s3^mbol of this power was the ash, the material, of 
which the spe«r5, missile weapons, and other implements of 
the Celt{B were made. This circumstance may, perhaps, 
account for its being selected, on this occasion, and its ob- 
taining the name of nion, from ni, a thing formed, or pro- 
duced, and On, gain, acquisition, Nion, also, implies a 
daughter, thing produced; a letter; a wave; a spot, a 
speck, a point, (whence nion-ach, spotted, forked, or 
pointed) — discriminate, marked object. Also, prey, booty 
• — acquisition — Nion-am, to get booty — rem facer e. 

The idea oifered by the Greek Ny^ is of the same clasl 



459 

lJvyVvv,nozo, new, present, at this point of time — It admits 
the articles, and has, therefore, the construction of a noun— 
the present, the particular, or the point — the new — what 
just presents itself — the oJ^ect, or subject of consideration. 
Hence, vv-oq 8i. bride, 'ci daughter-in-lazi) — ^the new, the lately 
madcyOT acquired: vv[jL(pvi, a bride, an insect, in its incipient 
state — {vvv-(pccu„ vvv(pvu, or f»«), — newly appearing — newly 
produced, or made. 

From vv, a point, comes wrtu or w^t^u, (vvctru) to prick, 
penetrate with a point. Nu, conveys the idea of newness^, 
the present thing, or point, iii nunc, nuncio, nuper, 
nurus, &c. 

Irish, nua, nu-adh, new : impair, when, point of time. 

The Hebrew name \^1, Nin^ a son; to propagate, or 
produce; is characteristical of each of the ideas, presented 
by this power. 



P. 

It has been shewn (Sect. I.) that the powder of P, na- 
turally describes a thing, springing, or pushing forwards. 
It must be remarked, in addition, that the most obvious ges - 
ture to convey the idea of plumpness, protuberance, or con^ 
roexity, is to swell and puff out the cheeks^ till this articu- 
lation is produced. 

P, may, therefore, be regarded as naturally descriptive of 
springing, putting forth, pushing, penetrating, prominence^ 
convexity. 



460 

Pi is its general name^ in the Bardic, Latin, Greek, and 
He&reziy alphabets. 

This word,, in Welsh, signifies the magpie, q. d. the 
pricker: pic, a dart, javelin, pig, a beak, bill, sting, or 
point. Armor. — a mattock. 

Pid, a point ; pidyn, penis : pill, a stake ; pin, a pin — 
prominent points. 

Piw, an udder — prominent, protuberant cover. Irish, 
Pi-an, pain: pianta, pangs — penetrating ; pi-ona, a pin, 
peg, point. 

Lat. pica, a magpye: picas, a wood-pecker. 

Pigetj it grieves — penetrates. 

Pila, a ball, globe; a mole, or dam—protuberant^: a 
pillar, pile — prominent: Pilo, to push: pilum, 2^ javelin — * 
the pusher, peneirator ; springing forth: piper, pepper — ► 
putigent. 

Pinguisyfat — protuberant, convex.. 

Gr. rit-afo;. Dor. I overtake — push after. 

' Trt^al, Si fountain — springing forth. 

vi^vv, I spring forth, flow forth, pour forth watcw 

w*'ie7i^,\ fall for z€ards; strivxa. 

vwv^ fat, plump — protuberant^ 



461 

Uth, riD;, pe, or >D, 'piy a mouth, fact, edge, or point-^ 
prominent^ projecting. 

0>D Pirn, fat, fatness — protuberant^ convex. 

The name of this letter^ in the Irish alphabet, is petk-hoc. 
As this language is rather deficient in radicals, under p, 
peth is not to be found, without having recourse to the 
sister dialects. 

In Cornishj pethav signifies^ I am, hence peth, (w. andc.^ 
a thing — what is, essence, being. Peth, conveys, therefore, 
the same idea as beith, the Irish name of B, to be, being, 
essence, zohat is: so that the discriminative title of this let- 
ter must depend upon boc, which signifies — he hath swelled, 
he hath budded, or sprung. A buck, or he-goat, is named 
boc, in allusion to his projecting horns, or his bounding 
motion. Peth-boc, then, implies a tlmig swelling out, or 
springitig forth, what is prominent, protuberant, or jutting 
forwards. The symbol of this power is not named. The 
Ui-Tvg, pinus, or pine, which occurs in Taliesin's catalogue, 
seems referable top. Of this the Bard observes, 

Morawg a Moryd 
Fawydd fyniesyd. 



« 



The mariner and the sea vessel, 
he nine nronelled.^' 



The pine propelled. 

I regard F, merely a? a mutation of P. 

In the Hebrew and the ancient Greek alphabet, this 
power had no appropriate character, and those which it has 
at present, in the Bardic, and the Roman alphabet, clearly 



462 

point out its origin. P was anciently written^ botb- in 
Greece and Italy, as the present capital gamma, or else 
with an acute angle, as in the Bardic alphabet. The 
j^olic digamma, or F, is, therefore,, nothing more than the 
ancient p, with a simple dash^ or mark of derivation added 
to it. 

The Bards called it Fi, and the Greek name ^i, is the 

same : Fi, in Welsh, signifies the act of casting off, putting 

forth: Ft/ (fi) aptness to move, or impel: it is used as a 

prefix, in the composition of words denoting agency, or 

tause, Owen's Diet. 

Irish, Fi, anger, indignation — bursting forth. 

Fiac-ail, a tooth — penetrating point, 

Fi-adh, 21. putting forth, ti relating, 

Gr. ^vu, to generate, produce, put forth, bring forth) 
to be born, or come forth, is a corruption of (pi&j, Lat. Jio; 
for we have still (pixva, to generate; (pirv<;, a fother ; (pirvixu, 
a germ, stem, offspring, &c. (p^, is, therefore, equivalent 
to the Irish peth'hoc, a thing swelling out, hudding, springs 
ing, ox putting forth. 

By the Romans it was called Ef, for Af, which amounts 
%d the same thing as Fi, Fi, 8vc. 

Heb.^^Jp, ox Aph, the nose,foce; indignation, fotri/ 
— what is prominent, conspicuous — what bursts forth. 

., Gr. a-cr, a(p, aiffop azicay, from, out of; a^oiji,. apngti 



463 

away ^Uh it! ap-ex, a top, point, crest, Ap-is, o. bee, 
sting — insect. 

The symbol of F, was the Aldtr, which was used for the 
masts of the little vessels of the Celta, smd, therefore, 
Gwernen, in Welsh, Cornish, and Armorican,h both an 
alder and a mast. 

The Irish name is Fearn, which also signifies a shield — ■ 
put forth to propel; andj hence, Feuma, the mast oi a 
ship, as in the other dialects. Taliesin says, of this 
symbol — 

Gwern blaen llin 
A wnaent gyssevin 

" The Alders, heading the line. 
Composed the van." 

Pronounced as the initial R, in Greek, and Wehhy 

This sound is produced, by fixing the sidesof the tongue, 
firmly, against those of the palate, and forcing out the 
breath, in front; so as to cause a rough and strong vibration, 
between the tip of the tongue, and the upper gums. It* 
mechanical production is a direct contrast to that of L, 

By this energetic power, the first linguists would na- 
turally describe force, prevalence, or superioriti/ ; a mo^' 
tion, or action performed by main strength — rubbing, tear* 
ing, pervading, breaking. 



464 

Its Bardic name is Rki, or Ri, which^ in Wehh and 
Irish, implies a king, a chief, a ruler, 

W. jR^y^ ^00 much, excessive — prevalent over, 

Irish, Ria, before, rather than, more than, 

Ri-adh, correction, taming, subduing — prevalence over. 

Ri-adh, Ri-oth, running — exertion of force. 

Arm. Ri'OU, frost, cold, — rough, rigid, pervading, 

Gr. Piyoj^ rigor — rigeo, to be hard, rigid, 

Viov, a 7nountain top, promontory : ?»>-«, a nose, beak— 
rough above the surface, 

Vivn, ^file, rasp — rough, tearing. 

The Ronians called this power Ar, which appropriates 
the same ideas. 

Heb. n^K Are, to crop, tear of: n^ Ari, a lion, strong, 
prevalent in force. 

Ao'Ctqqu, I cut off, strike, drive: A^/>i, mars, zcar, k^-o^, 
Aro, I plozv, break open, 

W. C. I. Ar, upon, over above — in composition^ chief, 
head, W. I. Ar, o. plowing^ breaking open, subduing, 
I. Ar, slaughter, plague, slain — breaking — brokeii, C. 
Ar, slaughter, I. Ar-ach, superioritij , strength, puissance, 
power; Sibriar-^tearer, 



465 

Cantabriail: Array ihemale — superior , stronger : Hara, 
slaughter; Harri, a stone, a rock-trough and rigid. 

The symbol of R was the rough,, rigid^ and pervaded 
Elder. Its name is Ruis, which signifies^ a wai/, a road^ 
a. passage forced open. 

Ruisyhe hath rent asunder, torn to pieces^ 
Ruisg, he smote, tore off, made hare; a skirmish. 

W, Rhys, force, vehemence -^ strong (Rhi-us) Rhys-wr^ 
a champion, hero, warrior. 

The Bards regarded the privet as the symbol of thi§ 
power* Taliesin thus speaks of it. 

Gwyros^ gwyn ei vyd! 
Tarw trin_, Teyrn byd. 

''' The privet^ happy his condition ! 

The bull of battle; the chief of the world.'' 

The Greek name Rho, also signifies the possession, or 
exertion of force, or superiority— endowing with force, 
prevailing byforce^ &c. 

Heb» yn> Ro, to break, break off, break in pieces, rend, 
destroy— ^revoil by force. 

Gr. P*^, I am able: I /"ms^ — ^malce an assault, 

Fwa, I strengthen — endow with force. 

Pa-(Au,^u-[x'/i, vehemence, exertion, forcCj strength; Vok, a 



466 

head, summit. Lat. Robur, force, strength; Rodo, to 
gnaw, tear, Sic» 

I. Roy too Tnuch, exteedingy first, before* 

With these also agree the Hebrew name, t!^n Risk, 

nti/'l, ResIie, to have pozoevj or force — a poison j prey mlmg 
1)5 force — 'to be poor — stript, reduced by force* tr;S^1, 
Rash, the head, superior, chief, beginnirig; a ruler; a 
capital, or deadly/ poison — prior, superior, forcibly pre- 
valent. Syr. ^Z'n, Rishi, chief excellent — Arab. Rais, a 
prince, chief, 

■ S. 

When we design to point out some particular object, in s 
private manner, so as not to attract general observation, the 
linger is not immediately directed to it,, but held low^ 
and pointed towards the ground. The countenance inclines 
downwards; the eye is directed below the object itself, 
and shaded by the eyebrow. The same kind of action is 
Copied spontaneously, by the imitative organs of speech. 
The point of the tongu6 drops downwards, and rests against 
the lower teeth. The upper teeth close over it, as it were, 
to conceal the unavowed design ; and the lozv, insinuating, 
hissing sound of S, is produced. 

This power, is, therefore, naturally descriptive of secret 
discrimination, insinuation, a private marking, and dis' 
tingnishijig. Consequently, it expresses those ideas of a 
thing, v/ith which such observation is generally made. 
I'hese may sometimes be connected with azae, and respect; 
but, more generally^ with contempt, scorn, or some insidious 



467 

iiesign. Its expressions ought to be segregate, apart, distant^ 
posterior, inferior, lozo, little, mean, and the hke. 

Its Bardic name is Si, which, in Welsh, implies a hissing 
expression of contempt* Si-arad, or Si-arawd, prating, 
backbiting: from Si, and arawd, speech, eloquence: Si- 
brwd, a low murmur, or whisper, from Si, and Brud, an 
account, Q. chronicle* 

I. Si, ultimate, distant; whence, Sid, the rxmatest, 
farthest from you, Si-ar, the west, backwards, behind^ 
awry. Si-air, aside; Si-dean, infamy; from Si and 
Dean, colour, appearance; Si-ona, delay, being behind; 
Si-omach, — a fox — plotting in the rear* 

Os, above, over, upon; Si-os, down, below* 

Amor. Si-gea, to sit, lurk; Si-oul, silent^ 

The Romans called this letter Es, for As, which signi-^ 
fies one, a simple thing, a simple whole^ segregated and 
discriminated from others* 

Gn Ai-^oXv), ct^4o?^o^i soot, asheSj &c. ofF-castr a?-k, drosSf 
dregs, mud, dirt, sediment. 

Chald. \K]V\^^ Jsh-ia, foundations — tmder-part* 
Heb. ?x, Az, then — distant point of timd 
}TX, Azn, to weigh, discriminate ; the ear. 
W^, Ash, fire — what separates, simplifies, 

G g 2 



468 

W. j4s, a small, simple, separate thing; oxi unity; a 
zchisper : As-edd, a slicing, cutting off. 

C. As, to undergo^ suffer. 

I. As, from, out of — separate; milk — what is separated. 
As, a shoe, placed under — a foundation. As, also implies 
fire — what separates, or simplifies ; whence,, As-am, I kindle 
afire — a separation ; as in As-aidh, rebellion, revolt ; As- 
aitigham, I abandon, evacuate: As-anta, sedition, &c. 
In this language, the termination As, like the Latin Tas, 
implies a discriminate state^ or condition. 

The symbol of this power was the low, stooping teillow, 
which bends under every opposition, and which formed the 
foundation, or ground-work of the Celtic coracles. 

Its name is s««7, which also signifies a beam; a heel — 
foundation, or underpart ; a. guard — who tacitly observes at 
a distance. Sail-spiorad, a genius, or guardian spirit. 
With these are connected sail, salann, sal, salt — the searcher. 
W. sail, ci foundation, ground-work. 



The meaning of xiy/^a may be perceived in <;iya.u, I am 
silent, I cojicealy dissemble, <nyr^, silence, secretly, /privately. 

*]DD Sameck, to sustain, or support — to undergo^ to be 
^♦placed beneath, as a foundation. 



The present Greek and Hebrew alphabets contain some 
derivatives from this power ; as, 

2>»Tflt, the seeker yScarcher : Zvirisi, I seek, search, investigate, 
^ollozo after. 



469 

Si, the corrodeVj detractor; ^tu, ^iu, I shave, plane j scrape 
— take from_, detract. 

jr Zaitiy Chald. species, sort — separate^ discriminate: n2\, 
Zene, to partake of- — take from. 

\'\D Shin, the marker — pointer. ]\t^, a tooth, a sharp 
point, pm Shenen, to whet, sharpen. i<W Shena,, t9 
hate. 



The mechanism, and the natuxal properties of this power, 
have been already explained. 

It describes tension, drawing, or straining, in whatever 
manner. Extension, stretching, or drawing out. Inten- 
sion, or drawing to a point, drawing tight, or close. Drazo- 
ing a line, or bound round any tkim^— -confining, straitening^ 
limiting, circumscribing. 

Its Bardic name is Ti, the meaning of which may be^ 
perceived in Tid (ti-ad), a chain; Tid-az€, to tether, tie, or 
confine with a line, chain, &c. Irish Ti, To, unto; tending 
to a point: design, intention; he, — he who^ — him that — ■ 
limiting the agent, or subject. 

Ti-mhor, the Great He — the supreme Being, (I have 
observed that the Celtic representation of Jupiter was the 
trunk of a huge oak, with two branches suspended from the 
top, presenting the character, and distinguished by the 
name of T«y) Ti-as, ixtide; tigh, contendit — he went, came, 
debated, strove. 



470 

Ti-m.e, heat, warmth — tenseness: Ti-atan, Tithing thei 
sun — intense^ powerful, 

Gr. Tt-w^ I honour, esteem, estimate, zveigh, consider y 
punish, avenge, mulct, of fine, I attend to; hence^ Tt-^jj^ 
honour, praise, price, punishment, revenge^ ox satisfactioTi — * 
attention, a reaching, or extending to, 

Timeo, Ifear, apprehend, stand In awe^ 

The symbol of this power ig not named; hut it was pro-! 
bably the sacred oak, as I have already suggested. Its 
Irish nanie is Tinne, which also signifies a cA«m— instrument 
of drawing, ox binding, Teann-am, or Tinn-im, I strain, 
press, bind strait, embrace, W, Tymm (Arrnor. Tenna) 
to draw, strain, stretch; tt/nn, strait, tight, tense, stretched, 
strained. 

In Greek, Tc^, has the same identical meaning; for it 
must be referred to too^}, whence^ teivw^, I stretch, strain, drazg. 
The Greeks may have had such a verb as tavtc^ of the same 
import as rxui, ruwa TBivu, extendo, intendo, contendo. 

The Hebrezo name n^^ Teth, is ^ verbal noun fl'oni niDj,, 
Tue, to spin — also^ thread, a line, &c. draiving, stretchings 
whence^ np^^ to tendu extend, stretch, 

Gviroi, as well ?is ^TFoc, Of waiting woman, may be derived 
from ^-zco, I run, strairx; also,, place, constitute— rcircum-s 
scribe with a line, or limit, in Tau, has the same import, 
nin Tue, to niai'k; to limit, or circumscribe, HKrii TaCj^ 
to limit, bound, circumscribe— confine within a line. 

By a cQinprphenslQn of the sounds of p ^nd V, the 



471 

Hebrezv formed another derivative power^ jf, which com- 
piises the force of its two coinpouiiding elements — an 
indirect, or secret drazoing, hounding, or conjining, 

TK Tsed, a side, lateral extent : m:^ Tsade, to bind in^ 
directly, or secretly, with a net, a snare, &c. 

Having now^ to the hest of my abilities^ accounted for 
the names and symbols of the elementary powers in speech, 
I would pause for a moment^ and make a few general 
reflections. 

1. It mustj I think_, have occurred,, that our primitive 
ancestors^ were particularly careful, to distinguish each of 
their letters by a descriptive term — by a term, which, not 
only described the letter, and its elementary power, buthad 
also a definite, and familiar import of its own* 

2. This designation appears in several countries, in se- 
veral languages, and amongst nations who seem never to 
have studied in one common school. It cannot, then, be 
ascribed either to local fancy, or to the humour of any 
whimsical grammarian, and which became prevalent after 
the nations, with all their languages, were separated ; — but it 
must have been founded upon some primitive, and general 
reason. 

S. The names by which the several nations distinguished 
any individual power, are differently formed, according ta 
the genius of each particular language and people; yet 
they amount uniformly to the same thing, or communicate 
the same prominent idea. 

Tliese names must, therefore, have been adjusted afWr 
the languages became distinct : because every natioii ex.-^ 



.472 

presses the same leading image, by a term of its own 
vernacular dialect. But,, as the several nations act upon 
the same principle, this adjustment must have taken place, 
not only when the reason for such an accurate, and clear 
designation was generally understood, but also, when the 
separate families had the same invariable notice of that 
reason. 

4. A due attention to the nature and meaning of the se- 
veral names for each letter, and of the words connected 
with them, will, I think, explain the reason for that pre- 
cision which appears in the choice of those names ; which 
reason was this — In those primitive ages^ it was acknow- 
ledged, as a fundamental principle, that each of the ele- 
mentary sound's had a discriminate import, smd force, in the 
super-structure of language ; and as the different languages 
of the nations were, hitherto, regarded as dialects of the 
mother tongue, the same principle was admitted still. 

5. My endeavours to ascertain this principle of natural 
expression, may suffice to shew, in general, that there is a 
relation between certain sounds, and certain ideas of things; 
and may also induce a conclusion, that a choice of elemen- 
tary powers, in the formation of primitive terms, was con- 
formable to the acknowledgment of this relation, 

6. If these premises are granted, we may venture ta 
affirm, that, in the symbols, and the descriptive names of 
elementary powers^ we are still presented with an authentic 
system of the etymology, as well as grammar, which go-, 
verned the most ancient^ and primitive language of the 
world. 



473 



Sect. VI. The import of sounds that hear the simplest 
combinations, deduced from the force of the elements that 
form them — exemplified in Hebrew, Greeky Latin, and 
Celtic terms. — Conclusion. 



H 



.AVING been guided thus far in my research^ by in- 
ference from authorities^ and facts^ I may conclude that 
analogy between the sound and the sense, has not confined 
itself to those terms, which are immediately connected with 
names of the elementary powers; but was carried, accord- 
ing to some general system, into the main body of pri- 
mitive language ; from whence it has descended into the 
several dialects, in which it can still be discovered, in some 
degree, by a due investigation of the system. 

As the most obvious, and concise method of ascertaining 
the regular application of this principle, — I shall mark each 
of the consonants, connected successively with the several 
vowels; and then combine the force of the elements, 
already developed, with all the simplicity, as well as all the 
accuracy, which the subject admits. To each of these 
combinations, I shall add a few examples of simple, and 
primitive terms, in those languages which I compare, to- 
gether with received approbations of each — I shall ul- 
timately submit the consequence of this analysis to the 
judgment of my readers. 

The character, and the antiquity of the Hebrew, entitle 
that language to superior deference in such a comparison ; 



474 

but there seems to be a difficulty in trying it by a 
scale, better calculated for the European languages. The 
textual, or the written vowels of this tongue, are such, onlj,^ 
as contribute something to the import of its terms ; whilst 
those vocal breathings, which merely facilitate the ut- 
terance, are left at random, to the chance of being supplied, 
as local, or temporary usage may direct. 

But the terms of the zoestern languages, consist, either of 
the vowels alone, or else, of regular combinations, which 
unite the vowels, and the consonants: — their orthography 
may, therefore, acknowledge vocal powers, which are 
merely auxiliaries to the -coice. 

With an humble reliance upon the candour of my 
judges, in weighing these diiferences, I commit the cause to 
their decision. 



AB, HAB, AV, HAV. 

It appears, from what has been observed upon the mu- 
tations of elementary sounds, that these four syllables may 
be regarded as perfectly synonymous, or^ as constituting but 
one root — 3,nd primitive term. 

The nature of its elements has been explained. A, the 
first in order, expresses direct tendency, positive ageiicy, 
perseverance, augmetit, &c. B imports being, existence^ 
— what is, — in a definite state, or condition. 

Ah should, therefore, signify, conducive to existence — a 
cause; tending to establish; 'progressive mode of beings 
and the like. 



475 

In the languages which I have compared^ it has the fol* 
lowing appropriate senses, 

Heb, ^i< Ah, a father, the author^ the origin; verdure^ 
or youthful vigour^ which imports a, tendency to a mature 
state, 

nnx Abe, he willed^ he desired, 

Gr, *A?-a? (Dor. p. ^C^^O therefore u^ccuif I grow towards 
manhood, or maturity, 

Lat. Av-us, an ancestor ; a father, (whence^ avmiculus^ 
q, avusculus) — cause of being* 

Av-eo, I covetj desire — wish the existence of a thing to 
me : habeo, I possess — there positively is to me. 

Welsh. Ab, aptness to any thing : Av, progressive^ or 
augmentative §tate-~the superlative form of adjectives. 

Irish. Ab, a lord, sl father: Aba, a, father, a cause? 
Abh-ar, a cause, or motive. 

Armor, Ab-^c, a cause_, or occasion, 

BA, VA, 

The elements are the same as in the former, but the 
order is reversed : so that, instead of conducive, or tending 
to the existence, we have being directly progressive — an 
effect — ^what is coming, or going fo rth, 

H^b, \o, Bttj he came^ advanced^ went — was progressive. 



476 

Gr. Bec'co (whence Cofivo.) I go, proceed: ^cc-i^, a branch — 
thing proceeding forth. Lai. ^ Bado (whence Badisso) 
'Dado, I go_, walk, divci progressive, 

Irish. Ba, good, fruity ox profit arising from any thing : 
death — going forth, 

EB, HEB, EV, HEV. 

Privation, negation, or the removal of being : a negative^ 
a retiring condition, 

Heb. nin, Heb-e, he hid, lay hid : Knrr, Heb-a, he hid 
himself: nnn, Heb-eb, he hid entirely. Lat. Heb-eo, to 
be dull, sluggish — to exist negatively. 

Welsh. Eb, a withdrawing, retiring. 

Welsh. Corn. Armor. — Heb, without, absque, 

BE, VE. 

It must be observed, once for all, that E is often sub- 
joined to a consonant, in the languages of Europe, as a 
mere a^ixiliary to the voice, without affecting the import ^ and 
force of the articulation : where it retains its proper import, 
after B, it should import, existence removed, diminished, put 
away, &c. 

Heb. bn:i, Bch-l, he nauseated, loathed, detested. 

!Lat. Ve, negative particle, as in vecors, &c. 



477 

Veho, to carry forth ; Velo, to veil, hide ; Veneo, to be 
sold, alienated ; Veto, to forbid, &c. 

Irish. Be, Be-an, a woman, one of the smaller sex: 
Be-ag, little. 

Armor. Be-gat, (q. d. small piece) a bit, morsel. 



IB, IV, HIB, HIV. 

Pointing to a being or condition: approaching: meet, 
subservient , applying to existence, 

Heb. 31>, Ib'b, he cried out — applied for help, or com- 
passion : 2>K, A-ib, to be an enemy — disposed to seek the 
life. 

Gr. i^ seems to imply a suction of water, &c. whence 
iC-^),?, a plug ; ig.^^. Ibis, a stork, or snipe, feeding itself by 
suction — bibulous, 

Lat. Ib-i, there — the very spot to which I point. 

S'ibi, to himself, or themselves. 

[ 
BHbo, I drink, imbibe, 

Welsh, yv, \., lb, he will drink, or imbibe. 

Get ib-en med ^ouel. 

'^ Let heroes drink mead together." 

E. Lloyd, p. 221. 



478 

tlii>) a skin— -adhering, applying to the body* 
Irish. Ibh, i/ou-^beings pointed to* 

Ibh, he hath imbibed; a drinking. The imbibing of 
liquids is sub^rtiient to being, both in animals, and vege- 
tables* 

Armor. Ib-ouda, to graft— ^^^xi into; Ib-'Ouden, 2i graft, 

BI, VL ' 

Being inhetentj appropriated. — * See examples above, 

under B. 

OB, OV, HOB, HOV. 

The emanating, projecting, extending, or putting forth 
of an existence, or condition, 

Heb. y^ Ob, 2L beam, a cloud : pDy Ob-e, he was thick, 
gross ; he became bulky. 

tOiy, Ob-et, he lent ; a pledge : n3y^ Ob-er, he passed 
over, &c. 

Gr. o^-eAo?, a spit — extending forth : w^-w (vox Lacon.) » 
tribe, or clan— issuing forth* 

Lat. Ob, for, on account of. Ohba, a bottle, or jug, 
with a great belly. Ob-eo, I die— go forth, 

Welsh, Ob, a rising, swelling, or throwing out* 



479 

Hob J apt to rise, throw, or swell out — a swine — a mea- 
sure of capacity. Hob-el, a shaft, or arrow. 

Irish. Ob, he hath disowned, rejected, put forth — Ob-" 
ann, quick, rash. Obh, the point of a sword, Ob^air 
(Corn, and Armor. Ob-er) work, labour, exertion, 

BO, VO. 

Being projective — issuing, or szoelling out; putting, or 
put forth, 

Heb. ny3, Bo-e, to gush out, as water. 

3/^3, Ne-bo, to be throzvn off, or out, ejected, emitted; to 
gush out, spring forth. 

Gr, Bo-y?, Bo-?^ an ox — an animal furnished with project- 
ing horns ; and, when wild, disposed to use them offensively. 

Lat. Bo-Uf a pimple, disease ; a kind of serpent 

Vo-mo, to vomit, eject : Vomer, a plowshare. 

Welsh. Bo, a bugbear, terrifier; Bod (bo-ad,) a kite, 
^og, a swelling, rising : W. A. Boch, C. JBo^, a check. 

Irish. Bo, an ox, or cow. Boc, he hath budded, swelled, 
sprung. The same word implies a buck, a he goat, in 
Irish and Cornish. 

Bod, (bo-ad), membrum virile. 

Corn. Bo-an, an ox. Bom, a smith's sledge. 



480 

Armor. Bo-as, custom, fashion : Boc-an, a plague, pes^^ 
tilence ; Bom, a bank, or causeway. 

UB, UV, HUB, HUV. 

A covering, overshadowing, being, or state^-^See un'^ 

der U. 

BU, VU. 

Being over; covering. Sometimes covering itself, 

hiding, 

Gr. Bv-a, I shut up, cover : ^y-a?. Bubo, an owl — ^being 
in cover: ^yg-5«, a hide, or skin: ^v-wi^ steeped, covered 
barley. 

Lat. ^Mc'-ca, ,the hollow part of the cheek: Bulla, a 
great head of a nail ; a seal ; a bubble of water. 

Welsh. Budd, (Bu-add), superiority, advantage. 

Irish. Bu-adh, superiority: Bu-aidh, victory: Bu-al, 
water, overwhelming fluid. 

AC, ACH. 

It must be recollected, that the power of C, implies 
capacity, inclusion, or comprehension; and also, reacA/wg, 
touching, or apprehension. Though these ideas, in their 
primary import, be nearly related to each other, yet, in 
practical application, they separate widely. Comprehension, 
and apprehension, are almost synonymous; but capacity, 
or concavity, seems very remote from a point, or acuteness. 



I 



481 

Ac, should signify, 1. Tending to hold, contain, or c<m^ 
prehend: 2. Tending to reach, touch, penetrate, apprehentL 

Heb. y< Ak, indeed, purely, particle of comprehension, 
or apprehension. 

Gr. 1. Ay.'or,, a cure, a closing: a,y.-rrt, a shore, or hank: 
«%-va, chaff, or husks : ccyav-n, {yox persica), a corn measure 
— closing, including: also, e^-*' (^ proa^, I have, ov possess. 

2. Afi-y), an edge, or point : ccx^^vi, a poi?it : av^-wv,a dart: 
euyj-ot^, grief. Sec. Tending to touch, or penetrate. 

Lat. 1. Ac, and, indeed: ac-us, chuff: s'ae-er, devoted : 
fac-eOyl conceal — tending to include, ox contain. 

2. Ac-US, a needle : ac-uo, I sharpen : ac-ies, an edge : 
ac-or, sharpness, &c. — tending to touch, or penetrate* 

Welsh. ] . Ac, also, likewise : ach, a relation, stem, pedi- 
gree : — inclusion, comprehension. 

2. Ilac, a cut, hack. Corn. Ilacho, cruel—touching, 
penetrating. 

Irish. 1. Ac, a son; a withholding: ach-a, & mound, 
hank: ach-adh, an enclosure: ac-or, avarice, retention. 
Ach, joined to nouns, forms adjectives of appropriation, 
and signifies having, or possessing (unde fX'^ 4 ■) 

2. Ac-ar, sour, sharp: ach, ^ skirmish: ac-ais, poison: 
ach't, danger, peril; a nailf a claxQ — tending to touch, or 
penetrate. 



482 

Comprehending, or apprehending positively, 

Gr. Kui, and, also : x» (u (xaw) capio, capax sum, 

Lat. Capio, I contain, take, catch. 

The Greeks begin the names of several measures of ca- 
pacity^ with xa^ and the Latins, with ca, 

Welsh. Ca, zoill get, have; a keep, hold, &c. 

Ca-ad, a getting, having, holding: Ca-e, a hedge; en- 
closure; garland — adj. enclosed, shut: Ca-u, to shut, en- 
€lose: adj. shut, 

Irish. Ca, cai, a house. I. A. Ca-e, a hedge, a feast,^ 

C W. A. Ca-er, a city— fortified place, 

C. Ca-id, W. Caeth, a bondman — At/^^ cojifined, 

EC, ECH. 

'Negatively holding, comprehending, or touching, 

Heb. nDn, TJeAj-e, he gaped, opened the mouth; waited 
in expectation, 

Gr. Ex, cr, oz/f of; tx»5, /<jr q^, distant, 

J-»at. iSV CO, I cwf, cMf 0^, seiif r. 



483 

Welsh. Eck, signifies, will lose, relinquish, 

'^ Tudvwlch Hir ech, y dir ae drevydd." Aneurin, 
'^ Tudvwlch Hir zcill lose his land, and his towns." 

Irish. Ec, in the beginning of words \s, privative. 

Breach, hit passed hj, avoided, 

CE, CHE. 

Comprehension, or touchy removed, diminished, taken 

auay, 

Chald. ro, Keh, to spit out, 

Heb. IHD, Ke-d, to ait off, reMove, take away, hide, 
u:TO, Ke-sh, to fail, be wanting. 

Gr. Kc-w, to split, tear open, burn : x«-«, to pour out, 
dissolve. 

Lat. Ce-do, to yield, give plac^, 

Irish. Ce, night, dark : ce-as, obscurity, sadness. Ce-dd, 
leave, permission. 

IC, ICH. 

'Pointing to a comprehension, or hold. Directing to a 
point. Meet for, approaching to a comprehension, or 
touch. 

H h 2 



484 

Heb. rip* Ik-Cy to yield obedience, submit.^ 

Gr. Uuj,td come, approach: u-ccvoq, meet, proper: iKtim^s-, 
a petitdoner. 

Lat. Ic-o, I strike, ratify; Icere fadus. — Cicer. Hic,-^ 
tills person, or thing: Hie, here, in this place, or time — 
directing to a point, 

Welsh. Ic, pointed, touching: Ic-wr, ^X'^i> ^ sharp, 
penetrating humour. 

Irish. Ic, a cure, remtdif — meet to close, or heal, loc 
(ic) payment ; S'ic, Hoc, frost ; the groin — closing, holding, 

CI, CHI, 

Holding, or cojnprehending; touching, or apprehending 
— intrinsically, 

Heb. o, Ki, for, because, therefore, seeing that, 

Gr. Kiuv, a column, or pillar — holding, touching infer- 
nally : y-^-X'^u,! discover, obtain, 

Lat. Ci-o, Ci-eo, to incite — cause internal perception ; 
S'ei-o, I know, comprehend : Ci-tra, Cis, on this side: — 
comprehended within. 

Welsh. Ci, ^Yi\l perceive, apprehend, comprehend : hence, 
W. C. A. Ci, SL dog : Ci, dryghin, the weather's eye, 

Rhyveddav na chi-awr, Taliesin> 



485 

^^ I Zi)onder it is^ not perceived," 

Irish. Ci, he hath seen: ci-m^I see, apprehend, perceive. 
Ci, a- husband : ci-al, sense, or meaning, 

OC, OCH. 

The extending, putting forth, of a comprehension, or 
touch,, Protuberance ; ^ projecting point, 

Heb. x^^};, Ok-e, a battlement — <iutward fence, 

Gr. Ox) oxo', hugely, abundantly,. 

0%-EW;, \ carry forth: o;)^-oo a ccr, or chariot: oyj-^rot;, a 
channel, water course — comprehending, or containing, and 
carrying forth, 

. Lat. X)c-ca, a harrow — with projecting points. 

S*oc-iu>Sj a companion : s'ocio, to unite, associate — cr- 
tcnd, a comprehension, 

Welsh. Oc-yr, usury, profit, 

Irish. Oc, a poet — a setter forth, 

Oc-aid, business, occasion : oc-ar, oc-as, interest, usury, 
annual rent, S'och-ar, profit, emolument, I. A. S'oc;, 
C. S^och,2i plow-share. 

Comprehension, or touch — projecting, swelling out, issuc^ 
ing, or put fort h^ 



486 

Heb. J/pi^p, Kokoy a marking, or stigmatizing, 

Gr. Ko-mif common, general : kq-ijlvi, co-ma, hair : xo-u, to 
educate: to caU up a mound: x^-a, to excite to wrath: 
X°->^-r» anger, &c. 

Lat. CO) com, or con, in composition — mutual, general, 
altogether, &c. Co, coim, con, in Irish^ and Gy, ci/v, cyn, 
in Welsh, (O being regularly changed into Y) are applied 
in the same manner. 

Co-mes, a companion ; copia, plenty, power, liherty, 

Welsh. Co-ed, C. A. co-at, wood, trees, 

W. C. Cov, memory, W. Col, any projecting body; 
Q. sharp hillock, apeak, a promontori/ ; ix sting; the beard 
of corn, 

Irish. Coh, plenty: Cobh, Cod, victory, triumph: Co^ 
dal, friendship, amity; kinsfolk, relations; an assembly, 
ox convention :, from Co, tmdi Dal, a share, oy portion, 

VC, UCH. 

A covering, hold, or touch — reaching over, 

Heb. ^r^', Sh-uc, he hedged; a fence, or enclosure. 
pViT, Sh-uk, he overflowed, he coveted; a skin, 

Gr. 7:*v)iyi, the j^g free. 

Welsh. Uch, over: uchOf uchod, above, covering: huch, 
a cover, or ptllicU : hwch, n ship ; a cofer^ 



487 

Irish. Uc^re, a napper offrize, 3l fuller, 

Uch'df the breast, bosom : S*uch-adh, a wave, evapora-^ 
tion: uachdar, the top, surface, cream, summit. 

Closing overt touching the surface, 

Heb. )p, Ku, a measuring line, 

Gr. Kv-u, to carry in the womb : x^'^^f ^^ pour over. 

Lot, Cu-do, a cap: cu-pa, a cups cura, cave: cu-tis^, 
a skin, 

Irish. Cu-a, flesh: cu-ach, a bozol, a cup; he hatk 
folded: cu-an, a bay, haven: cu-as, a cave; cu-im, a 
skirt, covert,. 

Welsh. Cu, dear, beloved — embraced, &c^ . 

Cudd, a hiding place, a hoard: cw, cwb, cwpy a C7ip : 
Czech, any round vessel: czt)d, a bag, sack, pouch : czodd,. 
a concavity, shelter, &c. &c. 

Corn. Cu-aS) a shower: cusc (W. cwsg), sleep: cu-^ 
tha, to cover, hide, keep close. 

Armor. Cuz, secret, hidden : cuz, cuza, to hide, cover, 

AD, ADH, HAD, HADH. 
Tending to expand, unfold, spread, distribute, divide. 



488 

Ileb. ^^^ Ad, a vapour, exhalation. 

phi, Jd-en, a hinge: "--fK, Ad-et, to become magni- 
ficent, pompous, glorious — to expand, 

Gr. A^ a;_, I satiate, fAl: ec^-iu, I please, satisfy : aJ-»5y, 
ahundantli/. 

Lat. yf/c/^ augment, in comp. as ad-iimo, 

Welsh. Ad-av, opinion, an ope^i ^a«^. 

Ad-ain, a wing : Ad-en, a az/zg, a ^?2; the Sj5oA^e q/* a 
wheel: Had, seed — expanding, unfolding: Ad-W]/, a pass, 
or opening. 

Irish. ^rZ, tcater — spreading element: Ad-a, victory: 
adhyfeliciti/, prosper itj/ ; alan^: Adh-as, good, abundance. 

Armor. Ad-a, to seed : Had-u, to sow. 

Corn. Ad-en., the leaf of a book — unfolding, 

DA. 

Expanding, iwfolding, spreading, distributing, or divide 
ing, positively. 

Heb. n^l, Da-e, to spread the wings, fly szeiftly ; hence, 
a vulture, or kite, 

Gr, Lg^'w, to learn, (unfold) divide; kindle, (cause to 
spread). 



489 

• Lat. Do (da-o)^ with its frequentive, Da-to, to give, or 
distribute. 

Welsh. Da, good, sl good; zoealth, stock, 

Irish. Da, (W. Da-u, A, Da-oji) two, the first dis- 
tributive, or divisible number : 4- Da, good : Da-igh, to 

give, grant, distribute. 

Corn. Da, good, a good; evident, plain — unfolded, 

ED, EDH, HED, HEDH. 

Negatively expanding, unfolding, spreading, distribut- 
. ing, or dividing. 

Heb. n*7n, Hed-c, to be sharp, narrow, or oiose, as the 
edge of a weapon. 

fn^ I-ed, to unite, make one — negatively wfold, or 
distribute. 

Gr. E^-w, Ed'O, I e«^j corrode, consume, 

Lat. >S'ec?j Z>M^ : s^edeo, I szV, subside : i-edo, I allay. 

Welsh. Ed'Tci, to consume, decay, noither : Eddy a 
moment, instant : Hidd, peace, a s^a^e o/* res^. 

Irish. £J, he caught, took, received: private property ; 
gain, cattle, &c. Ed-ean, a receptacle. 



490 

DE. 

An expanse, spread, distribution, or division — with" 
drawn, taken away, or separated, 

Reb. r\Tr\, De-e, to drive away, thrust forth. 

>n*7, De-i, a fall, a stumbling. 

m3> N'de, to impel, force off, thrust, strike. 

Gr. At-cc, to bind, or chain ; to be compelled — to have 
freedom removed : h-\.tu, to fear — to shrink : ^£-»Au, after^ 
noon, fall of the day. 

Lat. De, from out of— part removed : De-beo, I ani 
bound,, or obliged. 

Welsh. De, to part from, to be separate ; to be proper^ 
ox peculiar. 

Corn. De, A. De*ch, yesterday — space withdrawn. 

Irish. De, from whence, therefore — separation: De-adhp. 
duty, obligation. 



ID. 

Pointing to an expanse, unfolding, distribution, or 

division. 

Heb. *7^ Id, a hand, means, pozoer, dominion, a tract, 
SL portion, &c. n^s Id-e, to shoot, or cast at^ to praise-^ 
give, or distribute to ; to corf ess, or unfold. 



491 

Gr. ihta, I see, discover : iKct, idea, perception, discri^ 
mination, 

Lat. Id-oneus, meet, convenient , sufficient, 

Welsh. Id, stretched, or extended to: Idd, to, for, to^ 
wards, unto : Hyd, length, duration, to, as far as, until, 

Irish. Id, use, fruition; good, just, meet : Idh, a ti^reath 
j^ a chain for the neck ; a ring. 

^ Expanding, infolding, distributing, or dividing, inter-^ 
nallij, or intrinsically, — See under D. 

0T>, ODH, HOD. 

Extending, enlarging, putting forth an expanse, or 

distribution. 

Heb. Tj, Od, to be beyond, beside, further, additional 
— yet, moreover, again, until ; futurity, eternity ; to bear 
witness; lo put on, or adorn. 

Gr. o^-oqj a way, a road, 2l journey, o^'^Kn, odor, d. smell, 
or perfume. 

Welsh. Od, excellent, choice; the falling snow: od-i, 
to snow. Hod'i, to shoot out as corn, to ear. 

Irish. Odii, music, xkiC point of di spear ; a stranger. 



492 

DO. 

An expanse, dhtrihution, or division — extending, put 

forth. 

Heb. V% ^Oy knowledge* j^^>, I-do, to know, to ix^ 
gard, to punish; to perceive with the outward senses, 

Gr. Ao-w^ to give, present, distribute, La-^ov, b> present, 

Lat. Do-no, donum ; Doto, dos — distribution, 

Welsh. Do, it is true, yes, Do-di, to place, appoint, 
give, 

Irish. Do, to, two, therefore. 

Armor. Do-e, God: Do-are, news: Do-ar, the earth. 
Do-cn, to bear fruit, bring forth, 

VB, HUD. 

Covering, and expanding, unfolding, distributing, or 

dividing. 

Heb. ^)'i<, A-ud, di firebrand, l)n, E-ud, the beaming 
forth of light; majesty, glory, honour; a vehement noise,. 
or sound. 

Ox, v^-uj to celebrate, sing: v^-uf, water — overwhelming, 
and spreading fluid. 

Lat. Ud-o, a loose outer garinent ; S*udor, sweat, sur- 
rounding moisture. 



493 

Welsh. Hud, illusion, fascination ; a secret, or occult 
science : Hudd, shade, gloom. 



DU. 

Expanding, spreading over. Distributive superiority/. 

Heb. '7n> Du-d, beloved; an uncle; a basket: {l*t.* 
Du-n, to judge, 

\]T\, Du-e, languor, faintness, 

Gr. Av'V), destruction, desolation. 

Jy-vw, ^u-w, I put on, spread over me, 

^vvufAxt, I am able, superior to, 

Lat. Du'CO, I lead, preside over, — Dux, a kader, a 
chief: Du-mus, a bush, a grove, 

Welsh, (and A.) Du, black, gloomy, overspread, — 
Duw, God : Dzvv, moving, gliding over ; a bird. 

Irish. Du, ink, a law ; ordinance; duty; office; a land, 
©r country ; a village. 

Corn. Du, God; sl day ; sl side, or border, 

Duf, (W. DQg) a leader. 

See primitives in F, under P, 



494 

AG, HAG. 
Tending to grasp, adhere, cohere, collect, compensate, 

Heb. n:iK, ^g'^r, to gdiker, collect. 

Gr. Ay-o), I lead, bring together, carry : ocyu^^, I gather^ 
collect, uy-yiXy), a herd, Jiock, collection : uym^ a con^ 
flict ; assembly, 

Lat. Ag'O, I do, take in hand: jig-men, an army, 
crowd, herd, flock — assemblage, 

Welsh. Ag, with, having, holding : W. and C, ag^ 
and : Ag-aws, Ag-os, near, proximate. 

Corn. Ag'Os, a neighbour. 

Irish. Ag, with, at: Ag-as, and Ag-an, precious, 
dear: Ag-ag, a settlement, habitation: Agh,goodfor^ 
tune ; an ox (gregarious animal),, a conflict, a battle, 
congressus* 

GA. 

Grasping, adhering, cohering, collecting, or compensating 
positively — what is grasped, Sec. 

Heb. HKJ, Gfl-e, to increase, lift up, arise; pride; 
proud, - 

Gr. Tu-co, to beget; to be born, to contain; to rejoice: 
ya-iw, to boast, to be proud. >«-?«, riches, treasure, accu- 
mulation, (a Persian word), ycc-y.iu, to marry. 



495 

Welsh. Ga, an angle — the junction of two lines : Gfl- 
vael, a hold, grasp. 

Corn. Ga, lift up, stand. 

Irish. Ga^ a spear, javelin — what is grasped, Gahh, 
take, receive, hold: Gach, (Ga-ach) tvery — collective 
particle, 

EG, HEG. 

Negatively grasping, adhering, cohering, collecting, or 
compensating. 

Heh. nan, Heg-e, to turn found, stagger, dance; a 
cleft, a hole OJn, Heg-eg, to dance round and round: 
Njrr, Heg-a, commotion, circumagitation. 

Gr. "Eyti-u, to azvake, to rouse from the grasp of sleep, 

Lat. Eg-eo, to be destitute : S'egnis, slothful — negatively 
adhesive. 

Welsh. Eg, open, plain, opened — with many com- 
pounds. Eg-awr, to open, widen : Eg-in, the blade of 
corn — opening of the seed. Heg-yl, a leg, shank. 

Irish. Eag, death. Eag and Eg, in composition, — 
leaving, quitting, &c. 

Armor. Heg-ea, to shake, toss : Eg-eri, to open, 

Corij. Eg-ery, to open : Eg-erys, opened. 



496 



GE. 

A grasp, adhesion, cohesion, or collection, removed, taken 
away, separated. 

Heb. nj, Ge, to break, hirst forth ; bring, or thrust 
forth, m3j N'ge, to push, strike with horns. 

Gy. TB-na, a generation, progeny : yi-pq, a gift — what is 
put forth. 

Lat. Ge-mo, to utter groans : Gemnio, to bud, or sprout; 
Genero, to beget — put forth, 

Welsh. Gen, an opening, a mouth : W. C., A. Gen, 
the chin — projecting point. W. Ge-ni, C. Ge-ny, to 
come forth, be born. 

Irish. Ge, who? what ? either — particle of doubting, 
Ge-ac, spending, scattering : Ge-ac-ach, a spendthrift : 
Ge-ag, he budded, a branch: Ge-in, he generated; an 
offspring: Gein-eadh, -d generation — springing forth. 

IG, HIG. 

Feinting to a grasp, Sec. Disposed to grasp, adhere, 
cohere, or collect, 

Heb. m% Ig^e, to afflict, . oppress — grasp, squeeze. 

Gr. lyvvct, the groin: ty-i^ca, I approach — come into con* 
tact ; (/ty-au, I suppress, conceal. 



497 

Lat. Ig-nis, firCi grasping element, Ig-iturj therefore. 
quasi ab igior, tcntor, S'igttum, a sign,, mark^ standard. 

Irish. Ighj a ring-^grasping round ; tallow-— accumu- 
lating matter. , 

Corn. Ig, a hook. 

Armor. Ig-ueuy a flesh-hook» 



GL 

Grasping, adhering, cohering, coliccting—intrinsicalli/j 
internail^f. — See examples under G. 



OG, HOG. 

Projecting, extending, put forth from a graspj cohesion, 
or collection, 

Heb. r\yj^, Og-e, a cake. 

Gr. Oyaoc, swelling, pride ; a mass^ mound ; eminence. 
Oy y.6?, a furrow, road. 

Irish. Og, young, the young — springing forth. Og-an, 
a bough, branch — perhaps the true etymology of their 
ogam, or tree alphabet. Ogh, the ear. 

Welsh. Og, a harrow j youtig. 



X 1 



498 



GO. . 

A grasp, adhesion, cohesion, collection extended, pra^ 
jecting, put forth, or yielded up. 

Heb. ]/% Go, to expire: jrJS I-go, to labour^ exert. 
J?J}, N'go, to touch, wound, reach, smite. 

Gr. ro-»3«, an enchantor. yo-Wy a knee — projecting 
joint. 

Welsh. Go, an approach, reaching towards : Gob, a 
heap, mound. 

Go'hyr, a compensation, reward. 

Irish. Go, the sea; a spear; to, unto, until; sign of the 
optative mood. Gob, a bill, beak, snout : Gob-am, I 
bud, sprout forth. 

A, Go, ferment, leaven. 

UG, HUG. 

A covering grasp, adhesion, cohesion, collection^ 

<jrr. ty'i-n<i, whole, entire. 

Welsh. Hug, a coat, a^loose go"v\ii. Hwg, a hook, a 
bending over. 

Corn. Ug, upoiu 



499, 

Irish. Ug-a, choice^ election : Ugh, an egg. Ugh-aim, 
horse hayness^ trappings. 



GU. 

Grasping and covering. Adhering, cohering to the sur- 
face. Accumulating from without, 

Heb. u, Gu, a body, a society : >'i:i^ Gui, a multitude, 
nation, people. 

Chald. nu, Gu-e, elevation, pride. 

Gr. Tv-a,, a trench with high edges, a fenced road. 
Tv-ccKoVy a cavity^ the hollow of the hand, 7y-«»af, ropes, 
sails. 

Lat. Gu-la, the gullet, gluttony: Gu-mia, a glutton, 
gluttony : Gum-mi, gum. Gur-ges, a whirlpool, gulf; 
glutton, &c. 

Welsh. Gzo-ach, a cavity, cell. Gw-e, a web : Gw-tT, 
a husband. 

Armor. Gue-a, to weave : Gue-at, a web. 

Corn. Guy a reward, desert. 

Irish. Gu, a lie : Gu-ai, peril^ danger. 



I i % 



500 

AL, HAL. 

Tending to a gliding motion, dissolution, emptiness, open- 
ness, laxity, smoothness. — See examples under X. 

LA. 

Positively— gliding, dissolving, empty, open, laxj or 
smooth. 

Heb. v^-7. La, no, not, without, nx^, La^e, to faint; to 
be weary, spent. 

Gr. Acc-co, I see — I enjoy — it is open to me: I am will- 
ing — give loose to. 

^u'o<;, the common people — dissolute mobiHty, 

"hoc-yuv, the flank — lax part. 

Lat. La-hor'^, I slide, glide : Lam-bo, I lick — glide 
over : La-vo, I wash^ dissolve. Lae-vis, smooth, sleek. 

Welsh. Lla, expanding, opening, light, clear : Lla-c, 
a quick sand ; slack, loose, lax. Lla-ckar, a gleam, 
gleaming. JJa-es, slack, loose, remiss : Lla-ith, moist, 
wet — solution, effusion : Lla-eth, (C. La-it, 1. La-ith) 
milk, a liquid. 

Irish. La, a day, day — light, open ; also, water — whence 
La-hheir, a laver, ewer, from La, and Beir, he brought, 
carried. La-g, weak, faint, feeble, liollow. 



* The opposite meaning of Labor, work, toil, may be accounted for, bj 
conceiviug the root to be Ab, to cause, or produce effects, L'abor. 



501 



EL, HEL. 

Negatively gliding, dissolving, or loosing : privation of 
emptiness, openness, laxity, smoothness, 

Heb. n^rr, Ilel-e, to wound, pierce; be in labour, or 
violent pain ; to violate, profane. 

bn*, I-el, to stay, wait, be firm. 

bn^, N-el, to inberit, take, receive, possess.. 

Gr. EA-&7, I take, catch : eX-w^, booty, a catching, 
taking: t^^-huxy, I desire, covet: eVjjw, I draw: E^-avw, Dor. 
I take, lead away : tjA-c?, a nail, bolt, fastener. 

Lat. HelliiOj a glutton, greedy person. 

Welsh. Hel, a gathering, coUecting,^ taking,, seeking — ■ 
with many compounds : EUawr, (C. El-ar, I. El-eatk- 
rain) a bier, feretrum, 

W. C. A. Eliuy an elbow — juncture. 

Corn. El, he can, is able : Helh-ia, to hunt : Helh-iat, 
pursuit, a hunter^ 

Armor. El-guez, the chin, q. d. face-angle. 

Irish. Ell* a string,, latchet, thong — fastener ; a battle, 
engagement; hazard,, danger: Eall, a trial, proof: El^ 
ton, steep, uphill. 

■ ■ ' - — ■ ^ ■ , . — • -» " 4 ' . 

* Hence B'ellum, Du-eilum, B'eliua, &c. 



502 

LE. 

Solution, looseness, emptiness, openness, laxity, smoothness^^ 
withdrawn, removed. 

Heb. r\r,b, Le-e, to be vigorous,, fresh, green. 

>nV, Le-i, the jaw-bone — holder. 

Gr. Ai-icc, a prey, capture : ^>3-^a•a;, I catch, get booty* 
"^ri-ixx, purpose, intent, courage, valour, rigour of mind ; 
^i3/A-.w«, an assumption : Ae-o/v, a lion, devourer. 

Lat. Le-go, I gather, choose : Le-na, a bawd : Le-no, 
a pimp, catcher. 

Welsh. Lie (C. Le, A. Le^ch), a place, receptacle, re- 
pository : Lie- a, to place, fix, set, lay. Lle-zv, a lion: 
Llezv-a, to eat: LUs (Ik-as) advantage,, profit, gain— 
what is taken, or received. 

Corn. Le-al, true, trusty, firm : Le-as, sufficient, meet. 
he-ana, to fill : Len, full ; faithful, trusty. 

1. Xe, with, having : Le-an, h& adhered, followed, 
imitated, pursued: Le-as, profit: Le-atha, gain. 

IL, HIL. 

Tointing to, approaching dissolution, emptiness, openness, 
. laxitif, smoothness. 

Heb. ^V, III, to cry out \ Ye //-^unless perhaps from 
the sound. 



503 

Gr. iX'sui) to be propitious^ mild. 

»V£oo a hole^ cavity: tVf?^ mud, dirt — solution of earth.. 

Lat. Il-e, tlie flank — lax, soft part. Hil-um, a mer^ 
nothins:. 

Welsh. HUy a particle, piece, fragment — issue, off- 
spring. II J a ferment, resolution, decomposition : 111, a 
separate particle. 

Irish. //, in composition, variety, diversity of parts : 
Il-e, a multitude, diversity, difference : Il-each, dung, 
dirt. 

LI. 

GUdbig, dissolving, loose, emptif, optn, lax, smooth, — 

intrinsically, internally. — See under X. 

« 

OL, HOL. 

The emanating, extending, putting forth of solution^ open- 
ness, laxity, or smoothness, &.c. 

Heb. n^j;, Ol-e, to mount, ascend as a vapour — a 
burnt offering, ^y, 01, upon, over, &:c. by>, I-ol, profit, 
advantage. 

Gr. 07^'vu, to destroy \ loose. ox-o$, whole, entire. 

Lat. Ol-eo, to smell, to yield a smell : Ol-or^ a strong 
smell : Ol-im, long since ; hereafter^ 



504 

Welsh. 01, a track ; the hinder part; the rear. Hoi, 
to fetch. W. A. Holly all, the whole. 

Irish. 01, a drinking, drink : Ol-an, Wool : Oil, gteat, 
grand. 

N. B. 0, — of y from, out of, — has sometimes the force of 
a privative, but more frequently it implies an emanatioiij 
extent, production. 



LO. 

A gliding motion, solutiony openness, laxity, smoothncis^ 
emanating, extending, put forth,, 

Heb. );iV, Lo, to lick, absorb. 

Gr. Ao-tv, to wash : M-iyoq, destruction i ;^o-j//.o?, pesti- 
lence, contagion. 

Welsh. Llo-er (C. Lo-er, A. Lo-ar), the moon. 

Irish. Lo, water ; a lock of wool ; a day. 

Armor. Lo-a, a spoon : Lo-Vtty to row : Lo-ui, to wax 
moiiXdj: Lo-uSy vile, filthy. 

Corn. Lo, a pool; standing water; a spoon: Lo-ohi 
slime,, sludge, 



.505 

UL, HUL. 

A eovering solution, or loose substance, &c. or covering 
solution, laxity, smoothness » 

Heb. lb^1, N-Ul-i, a dunghill ; to defile. P. 

Gr. TX->?; a wood^ or fol'est. 

Lat, Ul-igo, moisture, ooziness : Ul-cus, a boil, or sore : 
Vl-va, sea grass : Ull-us, any one. 

Welsh. Hul, a cover, or mat. 

Irish. Ul-achd, colour, dye: Ul-cha, a beard : Ull-a^^. 
burying ground. 

LU. 

A gliding motion, solution, laxity, &c. covering, or over-* 
whelming — gliding, diffusing itself on the surface, 

Heb. 1^, IjU, would ! O that — particle of wishing. 

Gr. Av-yvi, obscurity, darkness : >.v-yLa., dirt, filth : Xk-^adj 
contagion, destruction, Lu-es, Xu-^^ to loose. 

Lat. Lu-cus, a grove — ^loose, hollow cover. 

Lu-ceo, to shine, give light— diffuse a loose, subtle mat- 
ter over the surface, whence Lux — Lu-men, 

Luo, to pay, expiate, wash : Lu-tumj clay, mire« 



506 

Welsh. Liu, an army, multitude: Llu-g, light, the 
dawn ; a plague, pestilence — subtle, diffusion over — Llu-n, 
form shape, figure, outward appearance : Lki)-ch, an ex- 
panse of water ; also dust, a cloud of dust. 

Irish. Lu, small, light, quick — flying, gliding over the 
surface : Lu-a, water : Lu-atk, ashes. 

Armor. Lu-ia, to mix, compound. 

AM, HAM. 

Tending to embrace, comprehend, surround. — See examplesr 

under M. 



MA. 

Embracing, comprehending positively — what is embraced, 
or comprehended. Real substance, 

Heb. ni<0, Ma-e, a hundred — comprehensive number* 
•tkd, Ma-d, might, greatness, copiousnes&i veiy much^ 
hugely. 

Gr. Ua-u, I greatly covet — embrace with desire: Ma, 
sheep, substance — a Phrygian term, f^a-yo?, a sage, man 
of science — a Persian word. /i^ta-Aa, hugely, abundantly : 
ficc, and its mutation {jt,n, m the termination of words — com-- 
prehending, containing, substance, &c. 

Lat. Ma-ter, materia — comprehending the substance : so 
magnus, magis, malo, manus, &c. 

Welsh. Ma, a place, space^ state : Mad^ good, benefit. 



507 

A. Mat, good^ wealtb, riches, W. Ma-e, C. Ma, it is, 
there is. W. Ma-er, a superiijtendant. W. C. A. Ma-es, 
a field. W. A. Ma-eth, nourishment. 

W. Ma-int, magnitude^, quantity : Ma-it h, large^ huge, 
Ma-nu, to prosper, thrive. W. C. A. Mam. a mother. 

C. Ma-er, much : ma-ge, wonderous : md-7i, to will,, de- 
sire : ma-ne, enough, 

Irish. Ma, magh, a field : Ma-is, a sheep^, a mass : Ma- 
ith, good, excellent. Mam, strength, might, power; a 
mountain. 



EM, HEM. 

Negatively comprehending, or embracing — pri*cation of 
substance — simplicity, smallness. 

Heb. rii:in, Hem-e, to be hot ; heat, wrath, fury — ^^incon- 
tinence; a wall, or separation — parting' off. DDH, Hem^ 
eth, acrid, corroding poison. Dn3, N-em, he repented. 

Gr. -EiA-sco, I vomit : r,y.-vij, I lean, fall : >3//.-i;yo S'emi, 
half. 

Lat. Em-o, I buy ; that is, take from, extricate from the 
former possessor — whence, Ex-imo, to deliver, release: 
per-imo, to cut-off; ad-imo, to take away, &c. 

Welsh. 4, Em, ev, he, this— a simple object. Em, a 
rarity, scarce, or small thing. Em-id, rare, unique : Em- 
ig, a toy, little jewel. 



508 

Corn. Henij Armor. Hema, this. 

. ME. 
Embrace, comprehension, substance withdrawn, removed. 

Heb. r\nD, Me-e, to wipe off, blot out, put away. *nO^ 
Me-i, an engine to batter and destroy walls. 

Gr. Mij, no_, not: fAH-iwy_, smaller. fAE-t.'a?_, I part^ divide; 
am deprived. 

Lat. Me-o, to go, glide away_, flow out, waste. Me-io, 
urinam reddo. Me-to, to reap, cutoff — remove substance; 
Mc'tuo, to dread. 

Welsh. Me-diy to reap : Me-thu, to fail, decay, perish.. 
Mc'itin, a moment ; while, past. 

Irish. Me-ath, he failed ; a decay : Me-ahhal, shame, 
deceit : Me-as, a pair of shears ; fruit removed from the 
tree ; an orphan^ — cutting, cut off, 

IM, HIM, 

Fainting to an embrace, comprehension, or substance---- 
meet, disposed to embrace, or comprehend, 

Heb. D>, Im, the sea. D>D», Tmim, days^ a year ; giants. 
P. D>, Im, termination of the noun masculine^ in the 
plural;, or comprehensive number. 

p>, Im-an, the right hand. 



509 

Gr. i/A-a?, a tliongj or latchet: ty.'ot, a garment^ cover- 
ing : iiA-n^u, desire^ covet. 

Lat. Im-ago, an image. Im-itor, I imitate; Im-o, 
rather, more than ; Imus, with the Celtic article is prefixed, 
forms the superlative termination^ utmost, extreme. 

Welsh. Hivj 4' Him, a skin, surface. 

Irish. Im, about, surrounding ; butter. lom-ad, Im-ady 
much, many, plenty, a multitude. Im-eal, (W. ym-yl) 
a border, brim, coast. 



MI. 

Embracing, comprehending, intrinsically. Substance ap- 
propriated. — See under M, 



OM, HOM. 

The extending, putting forth of an embrace, compre- 
hension, or substance. 

Heb. D^, Om, a people, multitude, swarm ; with, to- 
gether with. 

Di;2, N-om, to be sweet, pleasant ; sweetness. 

Gr. 0[j^-vvy^, I swear : o/a-i7»o.;^ an assembly, multitude. 
fi/x-o?, like, equal. 

Lat. Om-entum, the caul of the bowels. Om-nis, all, 
every one. Hom-o, man, rational being. 



510 

Irish. Omh^nn, frothy syllabub ; terror, Om-tta, an 
oak ; a spear_, or lance. 

Welsh. HoVy hanging over, intimidating. 

MO. 

jin embracing f or comprehending, and extending, or carry- 
ing forth. — Comprehension, matter, substance, emanating, 
projecting, put forth. 

Heb. »>'D, Mo-i, the bowels* 

Gr. Uo-yoq, fjLO'^o^;, ^o-^o?, ^jiu-'Koq, latour, trouble^ war, bat- 
tle. /Lto-To?, a bandage for wounds. 

Lat. Mo-Dco, to move, remove. 

Mo-dus, mos, a manner, custom. 

. Mo-les, a mass : 4- Mo-erus, a wall. 

Mo-enia, walls of a city. 

Welsh. Mo, more : Mod, a circle, enclosure. 

Mo-dur, a protector, a sovereign. 

Moid, a mode, manner, custom* 

Mo-es, general conduct, behaviour, 

Irish. Mo, a man: ilfo, Mo-^, greater^ greatest : Modh^ 
a manner, fai^hion ; ^vork. 



511 

UM, HUM. 

A circumfiisive embrace, or comprehension, A coverinff 
substance, or matter, 

Heb. Din, E-um, multitude, tumult, trouble : DV, I-ttni^ 
day. 

D13, N-um, slumber ; to dose. 

Gr. YjSA-nv, a membrane, or skii^ 

v,tA-voj, Hymnus, a song of praise. 

Lat. Um-bo, tbe boss of a shield : Urn-bra, a shadow; 
Hum-or, moisture : Hum-o, to bury : Shim-o, I take, re- 
ceive—embrace and cover. S^um-en, the pap, or udder. 

Welsh. Huv, a mantle, cover. Hum, a racket, bat. 
Hwv, a hood, cowl. 

Irish. Um, about, surrounding, covering; with, to- 
gether with. Umh-a, a cave, den : Um-ar, a trough, 

vessel. 



MU. 

Comprehending and covering : substance, or matter which 
covers, diffuses itself round. Sometimes — substance, <o- 
vering itself, or which is covered; as, 

Heb. mo, Mu'C, marrow, brain* 



512 

Gr. Uv-a, to shut, doise, cover: [jivsa, to initiate into 
mysteries : f*i-W, to moisten : ^xt-^??, a mill, covering 
mass, 

Lat. Mu-cor, mouldiness ; mu-nio, to enclose, fortify ; 
murus, a wall, &c* 

Welsh. Muy a large measure of liquids : MWf a sur- 
rounding substance : Mwd, an arch, or vaulted roof. 

Mzcg, smoke. Micy, A. Mui, more^ greater, larger- 
Irish. Mu-adhy a cloud ; noble^ great, good : Mu-al, a 
top, summit. 

Corn. Mil, much: Mui, great* 



AN, HAN. 

Tending to produce, discriminate, or simplifi/. — 
See examples under N. 

NA. 

Producing, discriminating, simplifying — in a positive: 
manner : or, what is produced, si?nplijied, 

, Heb. N3, Na, now — the present point. 

Gr. Na-o?, a temple : vu-ve,, a ship — a fabric— thing formed 
or produced ; hence, vx-^u, I inhabit — occupy a fabric : 
taJ, verily, certainly, Nae, particle of discrimination. 

Lat. Nae-vus, a natural mark : Na-vo,, I do, make, pro- 



513 

tluce : Na-vis, a ship : Na-scor, (q. incept, from Na-or) 
I am born, produced, come forth ; Na-tura, nature ; the 
producer. 

Welsh. Na-zos, nature — the producer : Na-v, the 
creator : 'Na-in, a grandmother (I. a mother), which pro- 
duces. Na-ddu, to cut into form. 

Irish. Na-e, a man, individual : ISla-duir, nature : Aa- 
oidhe, an infant : Na-oi, (W. 4- Nciw) a ship. 

Mai ymsawd yn llyn heb 7iaw» TaL 

'^ Like contending in the water without a ship" 

EN, HEN. 

Negatively new, or present* Not produced, discriminatedf. 
or simplified* 

Heb. r\:n, Hen-e, to compass, close, shut up ; a cell. 

Gr. Ev, in, within — not produced, or brought forth: 
E^-oto?, noon — point of receding, 

Lat. S' en-ex, an old person : S'enesco, I begin to decay. 

Welsh. C. Hen, old, decaying: En, in composition, 
in, within : Corn. Armor. En, in : En-a, there, therein. 
Armor. En-e, the soul — internal, invisible principle. 

Irish. En, in composition. In : S'ean, old ; he declined, 
refused ; S'en, a net. 

Kk 



514 



NE. 

A production, discriminate thing, perception — removed, or 
withdrawn, 

Heb. nw, Ne-Cj to rest^ cease from motion, or action ; 
also^ tQ lead forth. 

Gr. Ne, in comp. negat, 

Lat. Ne, .not, neither: Ne-co, I slay, cut off; Ne-go, 
I den3'_, refuse. 

Welsh. Ne, not; Ne -mazer, not, much. iVe-5, no one ; 
any one — indiscriminately. 

Corn. Ne, no, nor, not: Ne-ghy, to deny. 

IN, HIN. 

Pointing to a discriminate, or simple object, Aptitude t& 
produce, discriminate, simplify, 

Heb. r\}>, In-e, to press, squeeze out. 

Y*, I-in, wine — produced by pressing, 

Gr. h, a fibre — simple substance : »y-a, that, for, to the^ 
end that — conj. causal: »«"«*?, iv-scoy to empty, cleanse — 
bring forth the contents : ty-^^ a son, infant, grandson ; »y**09, 
a daughter ; ly-rof^ a colt, foal — thing produced. 

Lat. SHn-cerus, sincere simple : SHngulus, one by one— 
discriminately. 



515 

Welsh. Hin, season, weather, state of the air. 

Irish. In, fit, proper for any thing : a country : Inn, a 
wave. In, Ion, in composition, fitness, meekness, aptitude. 

. NI. 

The act, or subject of producing, discriminating, simplify- 
ing, — See under N, 

ON, HON. 

T,he extending, projecting, emanating, putting forth of a 
production, a discriminate, or simple object. 

Heb. T\1'i^i On-e, to act upon another person_, or thing ; 
to effect ; produce effects upon. \1'^, On-n, a cloud. 

Gr. Ov-cc^, a dream, vision : ov-55/xi, I help, profit, reprove : 
•v-oyM, a name, fame, renown : ov-v^, a nail. 

Lat. On-us, a burden — lifted and carried forth. Hon-or, 
honour, distinction. 

Welsh. Hon-i, to make manifest, publish : On, a spear, 
lance — the ash. 

Irish. On, gain, advantage; a loan; blame: Onn, a 
stone, a horse — springing forth. 

Corn. Hon-or, enough, sufficient. 

Kk2 



616 



NO. 

A production, a nezv, simple ^ or discriminate thing — • 
emanating J extending j put forth, 

Heb. ^^, to move remove — go folth ; a wanderer. 

Gr. No-f^?, a law, custom: I'c-oj, a mind, thought, 
memory. 

Lat. No-vi, I know, discriminate: No-men, a name, 
fame: No-ta, a mark: No-vo, to produce, make new; 
ISfo-viiSy new. 

Welsh. No, than: Nod, a characteristic, token, mark, 
No'Cth, (A. No-az, C. No-ath,) naked, bare, open. L 
No'tha, discovered. 

Corn. No'Va, to make, produce : Now, a noise : No-if 
a nephew: No-it, a niece: No-ar, the earth: No-den^ 
thread. 

Irish. No, Nezo. No-dam, I understand. No-is, a cus- 
tom, manner, behaviour; noble, CAcellent.. 

UN, HUN. 

Covering, eynbracing, a thing produced, or a simple, dis- 
criminate thing. Covering discri?ni7iation, 

Heb. pH;, E-un, sufficiency, substance, wealth. 
Gr^' Yi'-i'K, a plowshare — covering the seed. 



517 

- Lat. Ufi'USy one : Un-da, a wave. 

Welsh. Un, one^ the same : Un-aw, to unite. Hun, 
self — the same person, or thing ; alone : Hwn, this one. 
W. C. A. Hun, sleep, a nap of sleep. 

Corn. Urij one, a, an. 

Armor. Un, the same : Un-Of to unite : Un-aiiy one. 

. NU. 

Discriminating and covering. The simple discriminate 
thing, or point which the attention covers, or rests iipon^ 
See examples under N, 

AP, HAP, AF, HAF. 

Tending to a prominence , or convex — to a pushing^ 
springing, or putting forth. 

Heb. f|K, Ap, the nose, face y fire ; wrath, fury — cer- 
tainly, apparently. 

2]DK, Ap-ap, to flow, rush upon, with force and violence. 

Gr. A^-ayE, forth ! away with it ! ap-age ! wsj-o, from, 
forth of — a,tiy-(pvc;, a father, natural source, or spring : a(p'af, 
quick, suddenly : ccvj-^u^ I kindle, inflame. 

Lat. Ap-er, a wild boar i Ap-is, a bee — stinging insect ; 
Ap-ex, a sharp point, top : Ap-sis, the rim — prominent part 
of a wheel. 



r 



518 

Welsh. Ap. a soii;, springing forth ; whence Eppil, (Ap- 
hil) offspring. Ap^ a ferment^ whence Ep-les, leaven. 

Irish. Af-raighcj Of -rising, rising to battle: Ap-ran, 
an apron — fore part. Ce-ap^ a tribe^ family^ head, stock. 

Corn. Aff-hen, issue, offspring. 

Armor. ./^, a kiss : Affet, ioYiss. 

PA, FA. 

Positiveli/ prominent y convex, pushing, springing, or put- 
ting forth, 

Heb. XD, Fa, here, at this point, or extremity, 

HKD, Pfl-e, an angle, extreme part of a thing. ^; 

*TND, Pa-r, to adorn ; a mitre ; the shoot of a tree. 

Gr. <l>a-w, I shine, speak, declare : to-a-Kj a boy, girl — • 
springing up. 

Iia-w, I strike, smite : -Era-yoc, a mount, hill> prominence. 

Uuryi^, a father — putting forth. 

The same idea presents itself in Latin, Pan-do, Pa-teo, 
Fa-ter, Pa-vo, Fa-ber, Fa-cio, Fa-cies, Fa-ma, &c. Fa- 
fe Wc Fa^ beams — prominent, convex, pods. 

Welsh. Fa-w, honour, credit : Fa-wd, prosperity : Pa- 
t£)b, £il], '^everj one: W. Pa, what — C. when, what — A. 



519 

seeing that^ whereas. W. A. Pa-un, a peacock. W. 
Pawen, A. Pau, a paw. 

Armor. Paiit, enough^ abundance. 

EP, HEP, EF, HEF. 

Negativelj/ prominent, convex ^ pushing, springing, or put* 
ting forth. 

Heb. f)rr. Hep, secure, covered. 

nsrr, Hep-e, to cover, overlay; a covering; a secret 
chamber ; a bed chamber. 

fjDn, Hep-ep, to cover, shelter entirely. 

HDH, Hep-a, to conceal, secrete. 

Gr. E'Z!7-w, £cr-o/*ai, I follow, comc after, 

Erc-itj after, since — posteriority. 

Lat. S'ep-io, I enclose : S^epes, a hedge. 

Welsh. Hep, a nodding, slumbering: C. A. Hep, mih* 
out. C. Eph-an, June — point of the sun'a receding* 

Armor. Ep-at, a stopping, staying. 

PE, FE. 

Prominence, projection, a push, or spring, restrained, witJi^ 
irazvn, removed; but in many instances, the force ot P- 



520 

• renlains undiminished,, so that Pe signifies projecting, 
pushing, extending, springing forth, — See the note un- 
der Be. 

Heb. tiD, Peh, seems to imply a covering, spreading 
over — hence, a thin plate, or overlay j a net, or snare ; a 
governor, or controller. 

nD3, N-peh, to blow, blasts pant for breath. 

Welsh. Pe, if. Corn. Pe, what. 

Armor. Pe, or, what ? particles, expressing condition^ 
doubting, or hesitation. 

Irish. Fe, a hedge, pound, pinfold ; park, or enclosure ; 
a gage, or rod, to measure graves ; under. 

IP, HIP, IF, HIF. 

Pointing to a prominence, projection, or spring. Meet, or 
disposed to project, spring, or push forth. 

Heb. nD>, Ip-e, beautiful, fair, slightly, 

DD% Ip-eth, a prodigy, sign. 

Gr. I'ST-tro?, a horse : ^-jr-ru, to hurt, injure : perhaps, let 
fly at ; whence, iv-recfAui, I fly ; *?)-»^ strenuously, mightily^ 
magnanimously. 

l(p-io?, Kl>-K, robust, strong, fat ; also, swift. 

Lat. ip-se, self— the object pointed to. 



521 

Welsh. Hip, a sudden stroke. Hify a flake, drift : 
Hif-ian, to throw in flakes. If, thrown ofF^ sent forcibly. 

Irish. Iph-in, a gooseberry tree. 

PI, FI. 

The act or subject of projecting, swelling, pushitig, or 
springing. — See under P. 

OP, HOP, OF, HOF. 

The extending, or putting forth oj^ projection, prominence, 
convexity, a push, or spring* 

Heb. riDy^ Op-e, to fly, as a bird^ as an arrow, as the 
glg^nce of an eye ; quick, vigorous. 

KDy^ Op-a, a branch. 

^D^^ Op-ep, to fly swiftly ; to vibrate, or brandish. 

*^V^V} Opop-i, the eyelids ; beams of light, 

>Dy, Op-i, the shoots and foliage of a tree. 

Gr. 0'Kr-as&), I pursue, urge ; o'sr-j?, a peep-hole : ow-*?, re- 
venge, divine vengeance. 

O^-ru, I see, behold : o-^, the eye, view ; a voice, 
pinging. 

Ow-of, sap, juice — ^pushing forwards. 



522 

%^-tij a serpent^ snake — darting forth. 

Lat. Op-era, Op-us, work, labour, exertion, &c. 

Op-isy Ops J Opes, power, might, dominion, help, strength^ 
forces, riches, &c. 

Op'tOj I wish, desire. 

Welsh. Of-er, tools, instruments. 

PO, FO. 

Prominence, convexity, a push, or spring — extended, put 

forth. 

Heb. ))^>, I-po, to radiate, irradiate, beam forth; lustre. 

yDK, A'po, a viper. 

T^'^£i, Fo-e, to cry, shriek out. 

Gr. Tio-oc, grass, pasture — springing forth: isa-^m, a 
beard : (po-C», hair, mane. 

Vio'iitc, I make, produce. 

(bta-vvi, a voice : <p&?^, a thief; a speculator : (p^o light. 

Lat. Fo-ena, pain, punishment: Fo-mum, a fruit. 

Fo-etus, the young of any thing : Fo^eto, to bring forth 
young ; put forth a smell. 



523 

Fo-enum; hay : Fo-enus, interest upon money : Fo'lium, 
a leaf: Foil-is, a pair of bellows: Fo-m, a spring, foun* 
tain. 

Welsh. F6, flight ; he will fly, run away. 

P03 by how much : Fob, every : Po-ethj hot, fiery. 

Irish. Foy a king; prince, sovereign: honour, esteem; 
good. 

Corn. Foj to swear : Fo-an (A. id. W. Fo-en) paia, 
punishment. Po-er (A. Po-es) weight. 

Armor. Fo-erij hay: FonnUy to abound. 

UP, HUP, UF, HUE. 
A coDcring projection, push, or spring, 

Heb. ^VJ, Sh-up, to bruise, hide, cover. 

Gr. Y-cr-a^, a vision : 'vsr-e^, upon, above, over : "t^^-tjn^^ 
a beard : 'vm-yo?, sleep. 

'r(p-xu}, to weave. 

'Y^z-o?, height, altitude, summit. 

Lat. JJpupa, a lapwing, crested bird ; a mattock to dig out 
stones. 

S'liper, upon, over, above: S'up-ero, to overcome, 
prevail upon, pass over. 



524 

Welsh. Hup-ynty a shock, a sudden effort," a push. 

Hwpj a sudden effort, push. 

Irish. Up-tha, sorcery, enchantment, witchcraft. 

Armor. Hup-en, a tuft, lock : liupen-hho, a lock of 
hair. 

PU, FU. 

A projecting, stvelling, pushing, or springing over» 

Heb. ID, Pu, on this or that side — over the boundary. 

Gr. nv-y»y the haunches, buttocks. Uv-xn, the gate, or 
entrance of a city, 'dtv^, fire. <pu-», (pv-o^j^ca, to be born, 
arise, spring forth. 

Lat. Pu'bes — Pu-dor, shame — which covers the face; 
Pu-er, Pu-ellay a boy, girl, springing up, &c. 

< Welsh. Fu, a veiling over : Fu-ant, disguise, hypocrisy. 

Fw, volatility. 

Corn. Fu, a shackle, fetter ; the form, shape, out- 
ward appearance of a thing; was (Fuit), 

Fu-e, to fly — run away. 

AR, HAR. 

. Tending to bejirm, forcihh, superior, prevalent — to act 
or move with energy » — See under R» 



525 

RA; RHA. 

Tending to he 'fi A} forcible, superior, prevalent-^that 
which acts or moves with energy, 

Heb. nb<"), Ra-e, to see^ perceive, understand ; a hawk^ 
or vulture. 

DK^j Ra-m, to be exalted, elevated. 

if N'n, Ra-sh, the beginning ; a head, principal, chief, 
most excellent. 

Gr. 'pa-»w, I chase, destroy — prevail over. 

''' 'Pa-yij, Tigour, force, energy. 

Lat. Ra-tio, reason— rule of action. 

Ru'dius, a sun-beam ; spoke of a wheel. 

Ra-miis, a branch : Ra-pio, I take by force. 

Welsh. Rhag, before, chief, 4- a prince, leader ; JJ/t«- 
gor, excellency : Rha-id, urgent necessity. 

Irish. Ra, a going, moving : Ra-i, motion ; he arose, 
Rac, a king, prince. Ra-e, a field ; battle ; much, plenty ; 
a salmon. Ra-ha, a bidding, commanding. 



526 

ER, HER. 

VegatiDtly firm, forcible, superior, prevalent. -—Privatiim 
of energt/ in motion, or action, 

Heb. mrr, Her-e, to burn violently, Jbe , enraged, gK)W 
pale. 

*T)n, Her-er, to be burnt up. 

K'ln, Her^a, dung, excrement. 

y^n, Her-eb, to waste, diminish, consume, to be waste, 
or desolate. 

:inrr and "]nn, Herg, Herd, to sjiake, ahudder,. tremble 
with fear. 

Gr. E3-«, the earth — what is under foot. 

E|-TOw, I creep, crawl : e^-^c^, I go with difficulty, am 
afflicted, perish. 

E^-K, strife, division. 

Lat, Her-i, yesterday : S^er-o, late, too late, 

S^er-po, I creep : S'err-vio, I serve, am in subjection : 
JBrr-o, I wander, mistake. 

Welsh. Her, provocation, defiance. 

W. A. Er, from, sance. 



527 

A. Err-es, a flat, floor. 

Irish. Ervy the tail, end. Ear, he refused. Ear-adhj 
fear, mistrust. Ear-ais, the end; Ear-ball, the tail; 
Ear-aid, Err-aid, error, 

RE, RHE. 

Firmness, force, superiority, prevalence, removed, — Forci^ 
hly moving off— broken, separated, reverted, iterated. 

Heb. Tll^, I-re, a moon, month — division, or iteration* 

Gr. Pe-o;, I pour out, flow, vanish. 

p»j-/x,«, a thing, deed, word— separate subject. 

P)j?-?6>, I break, tear asunder. 

Lat. Re, in comp. back, again, &c. reversion, separa^ 
tion, iteration: Res, a separate thing, . or business : Re- 
tro', backwards: Re-us, obnoxious, guiltj. Re-te, a net, 

Irish. Re, the moon ; a space of time — division, itera- 
tion : Re-ab, he hath torn to pieces : Re-ac, he hath sold, 
alienated. 

Welsh, t Rhe, he will run, flow off'. 
Rhew, A. Re-o, frost. 
Rhig, a gift, present. 

C. Re, A. Re-i, to give, alienate. 



528 

Corn. Re^ some one^ somewhat ; by^ through ; running. 
. jR^-^&e, to flit, rush out. 

IR, HIR. 

Pointing to firmness, force, superiority, or prevalence^ 
Disposed to act or move forcibly, 

Hebr rrnN Ir--e, to erect, set up; to cast, throw, or 
shoot — to place 01 move with force, 

ir\*, Ir-a, to be terrifiecl — forcibly moved. 

Gr. i^-ui, pubhc harangues — forcibly moving. 

h-iyyzq, arteries* 

Lat. Ir-a, anger, rage* 

Ir-pex, a rake, harrow — forcibly moving, tearing* 

Irish . Ir, anger ; a satire* 

//^e>- gimmd, firm lancL 

Ir-ionn, Id. Ir-is, brass; a hen-roost; k friend ; a 
lover ; an assignation ; a description ; a record, or chronicle ; 
an czra, epoch ; justice, judgment, equity — (firm, fixed,) 

Welsh. Ir-ad, passion, rage ; pathetic, 

Ir-ai, a good — forcibly moving, instigating. 



529 

HI. 

Firmness, force i superiority, or prevalence inherent, or in^ 
trinsic. The property of acting, or moving with energy^ 
See examples under R, 

OR, HOR. 

Projecting, extending, or putting forth, eminently, or 
forcibly, 

Heb. '^'^j Or, to excite, rouse, raise, or stir up ; to 
exert j to pour out, or forth ; an enemy ; to strip. 

Gr* o^-ciu, I see, discover, understand* 

o^-ynuj 1 vehemently desire* 

Op-yn, anger, punishment ; the ruling passion. 

Oo-zy0, 1 stretch, extend : o^-^o<;, erect, direct : 6^-yt.n, im- 
petuosity, bent of the mind : o^-oq, a mountain : 'og-c?, a 
limit, boundary : q^^-u, I excite, rouse, &c. 

Lat. Or-a, a coast, border — utmgst extent. 

Or-ior, I arise, begin, spring, or shoot forth, 8cc. 

Welsh. Or/ a limit, boundary, coast, margin ; prep. 
or, out of the — Or-azv, to utter; send forth. 



I 1 



550 

Hoi', bulky, round. 

Irish. Or J a voice, a sound ; border, coast. 

RO. 

Firmness, force, 'prevalence, extending, put forth, — Forci-^ 
hly, eminently extending, — See examples under M* 

UR, HUR. 
Covering eminently, or forcibly, — See under U, 

RU. 

Forcibly overwhelming. Eminently covering. Prevailing 

over, 

Heb. ii)'^, Ru-e, to enebriate; overcome with liquor; 
to drench, soak ; idolatry. 

Gr. Pv'ca, to draw along ; to flow ; to protest. 

Lat. Rii-o, to rush over, or upon the surface, 

Ru-beo, to blush, redden : Ru-bus, a bush, bramble : 
Ru-ga, a wrinkle, fold : Ru-ma, the cud ; a pap : Ru-men, 
the cud ; belly, paunch. 

Ru-mor, rumour, report, fame. 

Corn. Ru, a street, covered way : Ru-an, a river : 
Rii'id, a net : Ruse, a rind, or bark ; Rug, a king. 



531 

Armor. Ru, a street : Rusquecn, a rind^ or bark. 

Welsh. Rhwd, rust^ Rhwg, a rough outer garment. 
Rhwyd, a net : Rhwyv, a king. 

Irish. Ru, a secret^ or mystery. 

AS, HAS. 

Tending to mark, or distinguish — a discriminate object-^ 
a whole, — See examples under S, 

SA. 
Marking, distinguishing positively. 

Heb. nXD, Sa-e, to measure, mete; a measure of ca- 
pacity. 

KDKD, Sa-sa, to measure exactly. 

Gr. 2a-6;, I preserve whole, or entire. 

90(.-(^<;, manifest, open, certain — marked. 

Lat. Sa-gio, to perceive quickly, discriminate ; smell 
out; vi^hence Sagax, and Sa-ga, a subtle woman, witch — • 
marker. 

Sa-pio, to savour, taste, know — discriminate : Sa-ne, 
evidently, truly, discriminately. 

Irish. Sa, self. 

L 1 2 



53^ 

Welsh. Sa-tr, an architect, marker, artist. 

ES, HES. 

'Negatively discriminating , or pointing out — uiifixing—-' 
removing a distinct object, 

Heh. non, Hes-e, to hide, cover. 

nii^n, Hesh-e^, to hurry, to be confounded. 

ntrr, Hez-e, to comprehend, enclose ; a compact. 

Or. E<r4&;, I^at, devour, corrode. 

H^^-wf, less, smaller. 

Lat. £s, thou eatest, devourest, corrodest, 

Hes-temus, yesterday — time removed. 

Irish. Es, in comp. forsaking, leaving; as Reim, a road, 
Es-reim-eachy deviating. 

Ess, death, a ship — departure, departing. 
Welsh. Es, divergency, departure, separation. 

SE, ZE. 

Discriminately removing, or removed. Segregated, de- 
pressed, 

Heb. nr, Ze, to be loosed from, withdrawn, separated. 



533 

nHD^ Se-^f to sweep^ scrapC;, tear off. 

nn'iT, She-e, to bend down, stoop,, couch, crouch 

nni^', She-ck, to prostrate oneself,;. 

Gr. Se-^^;, to adore, bow down 

<re-tw, to shake, remove, move. 

{g-w, to boil, spring forth separate., 

Lat. Se^ in comp. separately^ apart ; half; pvivatiom. 

Se-cj), to cut, divide : Se-mi, half., 

Se-rum^ whey — separating from, 

Irish. Se, he, it, him. 

Corn. Se, sjie, her; a seat.. 

Welsh. 4- Sej that — that particular* 

IS, HIS, 

Fointing to discrimination^ or distinction ,* to a foundti^ 
tion, or first principle^ The marking. 

Heb. ]D*, Ish^ /5, are. 

Gr. I?, a fibre : i?-y;|^i, I know, discern* 

Lat, Is, the same : fs-ce, even he» 



534 

Welsii. Ys,4-Ih ^^? certainly/; a demonstrative par« 
tide. 

Is, below, under;, inferior. 

Is-el, Amor. Is-el, Corn. Is-al, low, humble, 

Irish. Is. The substantive verb — -is^ am. 

Is, under — fundamental, 

SL 

Discrimination, distinction; internal, or low situation^, 
&c. — See under S. 

OS, HOS, OZ. 

Projecting, extending, putting, or coming forth dis- 
criminateli/, 

Heb. vy, Os, to trample upon — ^projeot^ or rise over. 

^ly, Osh, to make^ form^, fashion^ perfomi; to bear^, or 
produce fruit. 

Gr. o<;y who. 

oq^'oc, a voice^ fame, report, 

o^-a, to cast a smell. 

fij-o?, a branch; a champion. 



535 

Lat. Osy the mouthy face^ countenance, speech, 

Os-cen, a foreboding bird, 

Os-tium, a door ; the mouth of a river. 

Welsh. Osj that tends from, out, or forward ; that tends 
to increase ; an increment. O. D. 

Irish. Os, above, over, upon ; a deer, 

SO. 

Discriminately extending, projecting, enlarged^ put forth* 

Heb. n;;?, Zo-e, to move, remove, shake, 

3;r;^r, Zo-zo, to put into violent motion. 

n^^D, So-e, impetus, impulse. 

yD3, N-so, to move, be removed ; to journey, 

y^i;, Sho, to look, have regard, 

Gr. So-w, %u3-a, to chase, put to flight. 

ffo-Qiu, to expel, put forth, 

o-tf-jxa, a body : o-w-^o?, a heap — ^homogeneous mass.^ 

iiat. So^hole^y issue, offspring. 

tSo-cio, to join, associate: So-dales, a companion. 



556 

Soly the sun. So-no^ to sound. 

Irish. So, young, the young — produced, put forth : Sq^ 
in comp. apt, meet. 

Corn. Soy he, him, 

C. A. So-a, suet, fatness. 

US, HUS. 

Covering a marked, or particular object, 

Gr. Y?5-o?, a pike, or javehn — raised over the foe. 

Lat. Us-us, use, profit, advantage. 

Welsh. Hws, a covering, horse-cloth. 

Us, C. Us-ion, chalF — husks of corn. 

Irish. Us, news, tidings of a thing lost; a narrative— 
about a distinct subject, 

SU, 

Discriminately covering, or being ovcr^ 

Gr. Sy-Jti), the fig-tree ; §y-^i5, pi*ey, booty, 
iv-^v), a kind of cloak, or hood« 
sp-(pu^, a snake's skin — pellicle, 



537 

Lat. Suadeo, to advise : Su-ber, a cork. 

Su-dum, fair weather ; the clear expanse. 

Su-men, an udder^ the paps. 

Su-per, npon^ above. 

Su-ra, the calf of the leg ; a boot^ buskin. 

Sus, upwards. 

Welsh. Su-der, a horse-cloth,, saddle-cloth. 

Su-lzo, C. Sidy sights view. 

Irish. Su-aSy up, upwards. 

Su-adh, a learned man ; counsel;, advice ; prudent^ 
(discrete. 

Su-il, the eye ; hope^ expectation ; tackle. 

AT, HAT. 

Tending to draw, strain^ stretch, hind, circumscribe^ or 
draw round, limit. 

Heb. DK, At, a magician. 

I'lDN^ At'in, a cord, rope — implement of drawing, 

nnx, Ath-e, to approach — draw towards. 



538 

Gr. Ar-«^^ (-^fy Lat.) but — particle of limiting, 
Welsh. Atj to, towards — approaching. 
Irish. At, a swelling — tension, 
AUa, At-an, a cap_, garland. 
Corn. At-is, persuasion, advice, 

TA, 

^Extending, straining, drawing, circmnscribitig, positiveli/t 

Heb. j^tOKIO, Ta-ta, to sweep — draw forth. 

riKn, Tha-e, to limit — circumscribe with lines. 

Kn, ±ha, a chamber. 

Gr. Toc'U, roc-^a, I draw, strain, extend, 

Ta?-5W, I set in order — draw out in ranks, 

rct,'U(;, a peacock — displaying his plumage, 

Lat. Ta-beo, to be ex-hausted, 

Ta-bula, a table, plank — extended surface^ 

Ta-pes, rcc'iffviq, tapestry, 

Irish. Ta, is, am. 



539 

Welsh. Ta-er, importunate^ urgent, 
Corn. Potent^ powerful — exerting, 
W. C. A. Tan, fire. 

ET, HET. 

Negatwely drawing, straining, limiting, or circum- 
scribing with a line, Privation of tension. 

Heb. NDHj, Het-a, to miss ; deviate from the line.- 
Parkhurst, 

Gr. Er-i, moreover — besides: £t-e§o?^ another. 

£T-»?, sr'ui^o<;, a companion — additional. 

Lat. Et, and, moreover, besides- — not limiting, 

Irish. Et, in comp. privation. 

Welsh. Et-to, yet^ still, moreover — ^besides. 

Eth-u, to go^ depart^ vanish. 
Het'T/s, a short space ; an instant. 
Corn. Eth, he went, departed, vanished. 
Eith-om, want, need. 
Heth-as, a carrying away. 



540 

TE. 

Tension removed. Drawing away, &c. 

Heb. niD> to plaster, daub with mortar, &c. but fre- 
quently it has the contrary meaning. — See the note 
under Be, 

IT, HIT. 

Aptitude to draze, strain, stretch — pointing to a straight 

line. 

Heb. nro>, It-b, to be good, right, 8cc. 

Gr. iT-57^, bold, rash — going straight forwards, 

iT'V^, the rim of a wheel — uniformly binding. 

i^'vq, straight, direct — impetuosity^ 

^^'va}, I proceed straight forwards— I rush with impet- 
uosity. 

Lat. It-a, in like manner— c/zV'ec^/^ so^ 

It -em, likewise. * 

It-er, a road, journey, way — direction. 

It'io, It-US, a going forwards. 

Irish. It-e, a wing, /w-— equally stretching, moving 
forth : It-e, in like manner. 



541 

Welsh. Ith, C. It, Hit. I. Ith, Corn, wheat, rye^ 
&c. — growing straight, direct. 

TI. 

Dr arcing to. Having the property of dr^azoing, stretching, 
binding, &c. — See under T. 

OT, HOT. 

Forth-drawing, or strairiing. Outwardly stretching, or 

binding. 

Heb. loy, Ot, to fly swiftly ; rush forth ; spread a gar- 
ment over. 

r\^, 0th, time, season, opportunity ; to pervert, distort — 
draw aside, or awry. 

Gr. 0^-u, to move, remove. 

•S-ovT?, a sail, a linen cloth — stretched out. 

»}^-Eio, to drive, thrust forth'. 

Welsh. 0th, exterior, extreme. 

Irish. Ot-ar, labour, exertion. 

Ot'ir, a ridge jutting into the scb. 



542 

TO. 

Drawing, stretching, straining forth — binding, of strain^ 
ing outwardly, 

Heb. n;?D^ To-e, to wandei', go astray. 

\}V^3 Tho-e, to err^ wander^ go astray. 

ynyn^ Tho'tho, to err greatly, or repeatedly^ 

Gr. Qu, I run : 6o-o5> swift* 

^o^vssu, I cry out ; rush with impetuous rage* 

to^QVj a bow — straining, and casting forth* 

Lat. To-mex, to-mix, a cord. 

Ton-sa, the blade of an oar. 

Torrens, a torrent ; rash, violent, headlong. 

Corn. Tofy I go, stretch forth. 

W. C. To, A. To-en, thatch, tile, &c. — stretching 
binding outwardly. 

"VV. To-es, A. To-as, Dough — heaving, swelling out. 

Irish. Toi, a bearing, birth. 



543 

UT, HUT. 

A ayoer, stretching, extending, or binding, 

Gr. rr-vQv, a swelling ; a fungus, &c. 

Lat. Ut-er, a bladder, bag, bottle. 

Uter-us, the womb. 

Irish. Uth, an udder^ dug. 

Corn, lit, Uthy a swelling : Huth-a, to cover. 

Muth-y, to lift up, exalt. 

Uth'ic, XJthy, huge, very great. 

TU. 

Drawing, stretching, extending over, 

Heb. niD, Tue, to spin — what is spun. 

nin, Thu-e, to mark, limit, circumscribe. — Draw the 
line over. 

Gr. Dor. Tv, Lat. Tu, thou — the person over whom I 
extend the hand, or the eye. 

Tv-^uvvo:, Ty-rannus, a king ; tv^'^iq, a fort, bulwark — • 
defence, protection. 

6y-e?^ft;, a whirlwind : Qv-^uko, a sack, or pouch : fiy-^«, a 



544 

gate, or door: Qvcj, I sacrifice, slay; I rush, impetuously 
—stretch over* 

Lat. Tu'ber, a pufF, fungus, swelling. 

Tu-eor, Tu-or, to protect — stretch over; to behold — ^ 
extend the eye over, 

Tu-meo, to swell — distend the surface, 

Tii-meXy a rope, cord — drawn over. 

Tu-nica, a coat, cover, &c. 

Irish. Tic, thou: Tu-adh, an axe; fame, renawn — ex- 
tending over. 

Tii-agk, dominion ; a hook, or crook, 

Tu-aSj above, before. 

Welsh. Til, a coast, or border. 

W. C. Jy, or Tuj a house. 



In explaining the import of the combinations here exem-' 
plified, I have attached myself closely to the natural ex^ 
jpression of the several elements, as it has been marked by 
the ancients, in their names, and their symbols. 

With such a design, — elegance, or neatness of expres- 
sion may not have been compatible. My aim was, to 



545 

be understood^ and let my reader perceive from whence I 
drew my definitions, 

The words that exempHfy the^e primitives are copied, 
with each of the received acceptations, from lexicons, 
and from dictionaries of the best credit ; the Hebrew 
generally from Parkhurst, My short,, and occasional 
comments are separated from the words of my author, by 
a line of demarcation. 

I would not bias the judgment of the public upon the 
i^esuk : but I may be allowed briefly to remark, that, where- 
over the Hebrew offers an opportunity of comparison, the 
meaning of the term, in almost every instance, exactly 
falls into this plan, or system. The Irish also furnishes 
instances of analogy, so powerful, and frequent, as to cor- 
rect the operation of that grammatical licence, which per- 
mits broad vowels, ^, O, and U, or the narrow ones 
E, and /, to be substituted for each other, even in simple 
primitives. 

The same principles appear with equal force, though not 
with equal uniformity, in the other languages. 

Where n comes after a consonant in Hebrew words, it 
expresses a removal of the force produced by that con- 
sonant. In the other languages, E, after a consonant, 
is at one time privative, at another, inert : — for this ir- 
regularity I have accounted. 

That vowels had, originally, their appropriate force, and 
meaning, in the formation of the word, I think, will ap- 
pear iodisputable, from the ables I have annexed. Per- 

? m 



546 

haps their mutation amongst themselves was the first con- 
fusion that language underwent. 

The substitution of the privative E for the positive J, and 
vice versa, might, of itscU; have answered the design of 
the confusion at Babel. 

I have shewn, that ILchnzcs, and Greeks, the old inha- 
bitants of Italj/, and the Celtic nations, were pecuharly 
careful to distinguish each of their elementary sounds, by 
a descriptive name, or to represent it by some natural, and 
Ciaracteristical object; — that names and symbols, of eacb 
individual power, evidentl}^ pointed at the same image^ in. 
all these languages. 

From thence I inferred, that an age, however distant 
from ours, once existed, in which the ancestors of all these 
nations had a distinct perception of the force denoted by each 
of their primitive sounds, and when they regarded that 
hnport as marked by nature itself. 

As the peculiar correspondence, or the natural affinity 
between certain sounds, and certain ideas, was admitted 
so generally by ages thus remote, I made a further in- 
duction, that primitive man acted upon the general prin^^ 
ciple of natural expression, in as-signing to each of thet 
elementary sounds, its peculiar province in the formation 
of language. 

I applied myself to the task of discovering what antiquity had 
taught upon the subject, and I developed the habitual, or 
practical application of this principle, I had not bestowed 
much labour upon this field, before I observed the operation 



547 

of a remoDing, •and privative power, in the body of primitive, 
and simple terms. 

This discovery enabled me to assign the reason, why Jb 
and Eb, Ac and Ec, &c. present contrary ideas ; and why 
Ar and El, may import similar meanings ; the former 
being positively jirrriy the other negatively weak and re~ 
taxed. This induced me to inquire minutely into the im- 
port of the several vowels, in order to mark their most 
frequent mutations. 

I have now pursued the investigation so fal* as to explain 
the import of simple sounds, and first combinations, or to 
arrive at the formation of such primitive terms, as con- 
stitute the basis of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Celtic 
languages, (links, which had been missed between ety- 
mology, and principles of nature), and I have shewn, that 
all these languages actually arose from the same prin- 
ciples. 

The subject might be carried further, and so as to ad- 
vance nearer to perfection ; but I am anxious to learn the 
fate of that which I have already written : — I, therefore, 
with ingenuous diffidence, resign these humble Essays to 
the judgment of the public, — but I take my leave of the 
reader with a general reflection. 

Tlie identity of fundamental principles, wliich pervade 
the general mass of the old languages, demonstrates, that 
all of them sprung from one parent, — and that mankind 
are, what Scripture declares them to be — the children of x 
one family. — May the conviction of this affinity between 
us all, dispose the human race to mutual offices of charity 
and forbearance ! 



APPENDIX. 



X HAVE-, in the pages now closed, and at the mercy of 
tlie reader, prompted some arguments in support of aa 
opinion, that, in realitj , and in fact, the celebrated Tlyper^ 
boream of antiquity were professors of Druidism, in its 
earliest, and least-adulterated state. It must not, however, 
be dissembled, that M, Mallet, in his Northern Antiquities^ 
and that other very eminent writers have contemplated the 
subject in a different view. 

They regard the character of Boreas, the father of the 
Hi/perborean priesthood, as identified, in the Bore of 
Gothic mythology, and from this position have argued, 
that, in the Runic Edda, we discover the religious tracts, 
and system of those Boreada;, In addition to the reasons 
which I have already given, for dissenting from that hy- 
pothesis, I beg leave to suggest the following remarks. 

The Gothic system places the age of Bore at some 
remote period, before the creation of man^ or of the visible 
world. His character has no analogy to that of Boreas^ 
who, together with his brethren, has been represented as 
a dwarf^ and the offspring of a compaiatively recent 
period. 



lil 



550 , 

Should I be called upon to adduce, from our British 
vocabulary, those identical words, which, in Greek, have 
been rendered Boreas, and Boreadce, I could answer, that, 
of Celtic mythology, we know but little. 

But the language at least of that race will afford a per- 
tinent similitude of terms, from which I shall extract, or 
select a few, without presuming to decide upon their claims. 

From Bard, the character in which Druidism originated, 
the system was called Barddas, and the most familiar term 
for Druid in their Triads, was Mab Bardd, a son of thp 
Bard. 

Por-Jas, or Borias, la Lord of the pervading blast, or 
of inspiration. As Bar, whence Bardd is derived, sig- 
nifies a relatively high situation. Ar-varydd, may equally 
import Chief Bard, or Druid, or Ili/perborean, 

So, in Irish, the North being regarded as the highest 
region, has the name of Tuath, or Tuadh ; but the term 
also indicates fame, renown, a lordship, dominioUi Sec. 
Hence, Ard-Tuathach is literally Hyperborean, or su- 
perior lord, and regulator. 



\\ The fanciful, and careless Greeks, as it has often hap- 

\\ pened, may have translated a Celtic term in the wrong 

acceptation, and thus be mislead into the corollary, that 

Hyperboreans were those who resided beyond the north 

wind, or under the very pole. 

The cotemporaries of Herodotushadi a confused idea, that 
Hyperboreans were to be found somewhere upon the 



551 

northern confines of Europe, and of Asia, Tl e notion, 
may have arisen from a mistake of the name, as relative 
to mere Greece : or, their tradition may have sprang from 
the period at which the Cimmeril, were the most remote^ in. 
that Une of direction^ who were known to the llelladians. 

The dihgent, and curious Diodoriis, when he describes 
the North-zcest of Asia, merely hints at this vague opi- 
nion. He discards it, as unworthy of a comment^ and 
places the Hi/verhoreans wrhere they had been found by 
respectable writers of more authentic tradition, and who-, 
had written expressly upon the subject; — namely, in the 
large island upon the ocean, lying north from the coast 
of Gaul. They must have been, therefore, known in thal3» 
situation many centuries before the time of Diodorus^,. 

If this account be compared with Runic tradition, it 
will appear that Ht/perbareans were no worshippers of 

Odin, 

f> 

In the Edda of Snorro, the w^hole fabric is built upoa 
the illusions practised on Gylfe, King of Sweden. 

This prince lived at the time of Odin^s expedition, which. 
Torfaus and Mallet place about seventy years before 
Christ, We find him a perfect stranger to the gods, and 



* After the Roman conquest of South Britain, many of the venerable Druids 
retired from that region to the Hebrides, in which islands their monuments arc 
still extant. And the sea that surrounds them is called the Hyperborean, ocean, 
ly Ptolemy. Lib. II. C. ii. 

So aliio Claudian, speaking of Theodosius, the Elder, says— » 

Scortumqile va^o mucronc secntus, 

Fregit Hyperbfrec^, remi» audacious, onduv 



552 ' 

ihe religion " of the new-comers from Asia/^ till he un- 
dertook a journey to Asgard for information. It was^ 
therefore, clearly the opinion of the writer, who compiled 
the Edda, that the gods, and the religion which he de- 
scribes, did not anciently belong to the north-zvest of -Ew- 
rope, but were imported recently out of Asia. 

It was the most prominent characteristic of the Hi/per^ 
horeans, that they never molested their neighbours. They 
made no conquest, — they displaced no other tribes, or 
nations, — they were the aboriginal possessors of the land 
which they occupied : whereas the Goths represent them- 
selves, and have been represented by others, not as the 
£rst inhabitants, but as the conquerors of those north" 
western regions, in which they established their tenets of 
religion. 

The Runic Scalds preserve traditions of a more ancient 
religion, which prevailed in those very countries, and 
which embraced the systcn of transmigration. 

The manners of a people always bear analogy to their 
sentiments of religion. That of the Goths, was calculated 
with peculiar address, to inspire active heroism, and mih- 
tary enterprise. It was, therefore, absolutely incompatible 
with Hyperborean zealots, who placed their heroism in 
passive courage, and patient forbearance. Odin, or either 
of his relations, could never have been a god of their 
creed. 



Their whole history declares, that none of them could 
have been enrolled under the banner of " The terrible and 



555 

Severe God; the father of slaughter ; the God that car* 
rieth desolation, and fire ; the active, and roaring deity ^ 
zvho givcth victory, and reviveth courage in the conflict, 
ivho nameth such as are to die," N, Ant, V. I. C. vi. 

The Hyperhoreans must rather have acknowledged a 
leader, similar, and congenial to Hu Gadarn, the peaceful 
ploughman, the explorer of unoccupied regions, whose at- 
tributes 1 have already described, and who seems to be 
the Hercules of the Gauls, mentioned by Lncian, Ogmins 
(Sulcius) from 0/jm,o?, a furrow, seems to be an evident 
Greek version of his epithet Arddwr; Corn. Ardhur, a 
ploughman. 



I think, a candid, and skilful investigation of the literary 
vestiges, left us by the ancient Britons, would furnish 
irresistible evidence of the identity between Druids, and 
Hyperboreans. I shall only offer one specimen,, extracted 
from a poem, entitled Angar Cyvyndazvd, W. Arch. 
V. i. P. 34. 

It must be, however, premised, that British historians 
often borrowed names from their national religion. Caw 
and Angar, in this mystical piece, are not referable to the 
family of Gerainf ab Erbin, Prince of Devon, They are 
evidently mythological characters. 

Caw, imports a band, what goes round, or encloses. 

Hence, a Bard, or Druid, who had completed his in- 
itiation, and was admitted into all the elevated, and hal- 



554 

lowed privileges of the order, — had the title of Bardd 
Caw, or Cewt/dd, (perhaps the same as Koir,?.) 

Angar, which Mr. Owen interprets, receptacle of heat, 
may come from AugUy to comprise, contain. Be that as 
it may, he is here styled third of the equal judges. He 
was therefore the same personage as Tydain Tad Azcen — 
Titan, the father of inspiration, — or Apollo, who is third 
of the chief regulators, and third generator of Bardic 
lore. W. A. V. ii. P. 6? and 71. 

But what is most remarkable in this poem, is the cha- 
racter of Lldd, benefit; ov Lladon, beneficent, who seems 
to be identified by name, parentage, and office, with Xa- 
tofia, the mother of the Hyperborean Apollo. 

Llad was Uch Lh/n Llathrawd^-Daughter of the Fluid 
of Splendour ; — and again, she is called Lladon verck 
Juliant (Caw) Baton, daughter of the water of Caw. 

Latona was the daughter of ^oiSti — Splendour, and of 
Koto?. Apollodor. L. I. C. ii. 

Lladon was Priestess of Angar — (Apollo) in the origin 
of land, or primitive age. 

Latona was mother of the Hyperborean Apollo ; but 
this can only mean that she was the first, or chief Fnestess 
of Apollo, in some national temple, or grove, and, in the 
Amyclean Record, we find the term Mnmp thus appropriated, 
from age to age. 



555 



AngA-R, of the Social Union, 

^^ A Bard is present. No man can recite his song, though 
lie be"-in when it is concluded, unless he be a Syxcedi/dd, 
(soothsayer.) 

" Let the generous ones disown me — ^let there be none to 
honour me with a present : yet Taliesiri* declares, it was 
a day of irradiation, when Cian (the Percipient) sung the 
praise of Lliaws. 

*' Be it proclaimed — then was the dissolution of Avagddw\, 
With skill he brought to light inestimable principles. 

" Gzvion (the scientific) and the mysterious birds, dis- 
closed what proved the dead to be living, though he be 
divested of power. 



* Taliesin iiaTp\\c&, radiant front, or luminous head. This was either a title of \ 
dignity in DruiJical establishments, or else, the system of transmigration re- 
cognised a distinguished, and primitive soul, in a succession of corporeal 
dwellings. For Tatiesin, like Orpheus of old, was conversant with a variety of 
ages. The Bard of Urien, in the sixth century, is well known. la the fourth 
century, Talie&iu sung the elegy of Cunedda, the son of Edeyni, from whom he 
had received personal favours. W. Arch. V. i. P. 7i. 

Talicsin accompanied Bran, ManaioydaUt &c. in the first century. Sec Mr. 
Turner s Vindication, P. 284. 

Taliesin, the son of Cyridwen, the first woman, was born in the year Xvhea 
the cauldron of Auien, a Gxoybodau-^Genius, and Science, was first prepared. 
W. Arch. V. i. P- 17. The Sages, and Heroes of Druidism, were liappiljf 
circumstanced. What compliment could equal that of being discovered thus to 
be the same personage who had already enjoyed a thousand years of renown, or 
had signalised himself on a thousand occasions ? Observations like these, may 
extend their analogy to other characters, mentioned in the Mystical Poems and 
Tales. 

t Avagddu — nursling, or accumulation of darkness, perhaps, mental darkness. 



556 

'^ Then men caused their furnaces * to boil without water, 
and prepared their solid substance, to endu?e for the age 
of aoes. 

'^ The progress has been traced from the deep promulgator 
of song ; and, truly, it was Angar, of the Social Union, 
who first instituted the custom. So much of the national 
song your tongue has retained. Why will ye not recite the 
story of Llad, the daughter of the fluid of Brightness, 
(the theme of every one's rhapsody f) P 

'^ In that theme I shall be found expert. He (Jngarjwa^ 
a profound judge. He came, after his periodical custom, 
third of the judges of equal rank. For threescore years 
did he maintain a connection with the earth, in the water 
of Caw, with the populace, in the first origin of lands. 
A hundred attendants sung around ; a hundred chiefs in- 
voked him with vows. When it was that they departed, or 
when they approached, it was with a hundred minstrels, 
and this vaticination was delivered by Ladon%y the daugh- 
ter of the stream, who was but little desirous of gold, and 
silver. — ^' Every living man who departs from him, with 
blood on the bosom (sprinkled with sacrificial blood, after 
the accredited custom of the Celtcd) has a claim ta be men- 
tioned with distinguished praise." 

" I am Taliesin. I will record a true string, which shall 
remain to the end, as a pattern to Eljin (the spirit). 



* The furnaces of renovation. See Mr. Turner's Vmdicaiion, P. 283. 
t It appears by the rhyme, that this is either spurious, or corrupted. 

* Lladdan, in the London edition, is Lladdon in JUr. Walter's copy. In old 
MSS. we should have had Lladon, or Laton. For bych, in the next line, Mr* 
IV's copy has btfchan, which the measure proves to be right. 



557 

'^ A royal tribute of gold^ duly counted, may be abhorred ; 
because peijury and treachery are odious. I seek not to 
procure advantage, by undermining the laws of our song. 
No one shall discover the secret which is committed to me 
by a brother, a man of wisdom, eminently skilled in the 
studies of the Syzoedi/dd. Concerning the bird of wrath*, 
concerning the resolvent f — concerning the changes of the 
descriher of many and concerning men well versed in our 
hymns. It is the mystery of the god, who has appreciated 
the desert of the transgression of Bardism, which he 
gave, together with its secret, the Awen, not to be di- 
vulged. 

^' And seven score personifications pertain to the Awen : — 
in the deep, which is void of w^rath — in the deep, where 
extreme indignation dwells— in the deep, beneath the ele- 
ments — and in the ski/, above the elements. 

*' There is, who knows that state of pensive meditation, 
which is better than cheerfulness. I know the laws of the 
endowments of the Auen, when they stream forth — con- 
cerning the secrets of the understanding — concerning the 
blessed days, or gods (Diau) — concerning an inoffensive 
course of life — concerning the ages of deliverance — con- 
cerning that which beseems princes, and the duration of 
their bliss, — and concerning the analogy of things on the 
|ace of the earth," — 



Giaxfth, and Edrv^yth, seem to b^terma of augurij. 
t Two lincfs •whicb interrupt the sen.'-e are here omitted as spuriou? 



558 

It appears, that the TVehh are not the only tribe who 
have preserved vestiges, like these, of the ancient western 
rehgion. I have already hazarded an opinion, that the 
Armorican tongue has lineally descended from the Celtic 
of Gaul, and that our Druidism flourished in Britanif 
to a late period. 

Since my Essays were printed^ I have met with the fol- 
lowing particulars : — ■ 

M, Le Brigant — Ohs. Fund, sur les Langues — Paris, 
1787, contends, that the Armorican is the genuine Celtic 
of ancient Gaul, and but very little, if at all, affected by 
the sister dialect of British emigrants. 

La Tour D^Auvergtie Corret, has, I think, absolutely 
demonstrated this fact, in his Origines Gauloises — Ham^ 
hourgf 1801 ; — a book, which merits the peculiar attention 
of Celtic antiquaries* 

The ingenious, and well-informed writer of the Voyage 
dans le Finistcre, in 1794 et 1795, not only recognises 
the same opinion, but takes notice of Druidical customs, 
traditions, and superstitions, in that district, which to 
this very day, have repelled the eradicating eiforts of 
the Catholic clergy. To these Druids, and their Bards^ 
he confidently ascribes mythological tales of the country, 
and exhibits a curious specimen, in eight pages, upon the 
following subject. V. i. P. 152. 

^^ The young son of a Prince of St. Pol de Xeow, whilst 
he wanders alone upon the sea shore, is overtaken by a 
tempest. He repairs for shelter to a cavern, which proves 



559 

to be inhabited by the Goddesa of Mature, Her bead In 
covered with stars. The signs of the Zodiack constitute 
the ornaments of her golden girdle. 

" Her unruly sons, the tempestuous winds, enter the 
recess. The child's limbs become rigid with a mortal 
cold ; he is covered by water. But repose is not made 
for these demons. 

^^ When they rush forth, the Goddess takes the amiable 
boy upon her knees, and covers him with her robes. Na-^ 
tiire's spoiled child, the lovely Zephi/r, makes his ap- 
pearance. The young Prince is committed into his care* 
He is divested of his earthly enttlope, his terrestrial 
senses are at once refined, and he is borne aloft in 
the air. 

" In the course of his journey, he makes discoveries of 
signal importance. The clouds are composed of the souls 
of men, which have lately quitted the earth. They fly over 
the heads of armies. Their influence inspires courage^ or 
strikes terror. 

'^ These are they, who, in the obscurity of the night, and 
amongst silent forests, terrify mortals with long-continued 
bowlings, with apparitions, and luminous phantoms. Par- 
ticipating as yet of terrestrial affections, theij mix them- 
selves into the passions of men. Their agency is perceived 
in dreams, aiKl in panic terrors. 

^^ In vain they endeavour to soar above the atmosphere: 
an irresistible force — -a wall of sapphire, impedes their 



560 

wing towards the purer spheres^ which roll in the immensitj 
of space. 

^^ As soon as a new body is formed, they enter it with. im» 
patience, inhabit, a?id give it animation. Not having 
attained that purity xohich unites them to the sun, the 
genius of their system, they wander in the forms of the 
various animals, which people the airy the earth, and 
the seas, 

'' The Prince is carried up into the vortex of the moon. 
Here, millions of souls traverse vast plains of ice, where 
they lose all perception, but that of simple existence. 
They forget the course of adventures in which they have 
been engaged, and which they are now to recommence. 
On long tubes of darkness, caused by an eclipse, they re- 
turn to the earth. They are revived by a particle of light 
from the sun, whose emanations quicken all sublunary 
things. They begin anew the career of life. 

^^ Tow^ards the disk of the sun, the young Prince ap- 
proaches, at first, with awful dread ; but presently, with 
inconceivable rapture, and delight. This glorious body 
consists of an assemblage of "pure souls, swimming in an 
ocean of bliss. It is tlie abode of the blessed — of the 
saires — of the friends of mankind. 



o' 



^' The happy souls, when thrice purified in the sun, ascend 
to a succession of still higher spheres, from whence they 
can no more descend, to traverse the circle of those globes 
and stars, which float in a less pure atmosphere. 



561 

I will not assert that none of the emhellishments in thjs 
fragment are modern. Yet, as the national tales_, of which 
it furnishes a specimen, must have originated in some 
national superstition, I would remark, as a curious phe- 
nomenon, that, in its great outlines, it corresponds exactly 
to the doctrine of the oldest Welsh documents, and the cha- 
racter of Druidism, described by the ancients. 

Souls, which are sullied with earthly impurities, are to 
be rejined, hy repeated changes and probations ; till the 
last stain of evil is worn away, and they are ultimately 
ripened for immortal bliss in a higher sphere. 

This is neither Gothic, nox: Roman ;— it is Druidical. At 
no period, since the ages of Druidism, have the Welsh, 
and the Armoricans ever studied, in one common school, 
at which mystical doctrines, like these, were taught. Must 
il not follow, that both nations derived them from their 
ancestors — the Priests of the Groves ? 



THE END, 



PB1NT1JK> BY J, BARFIELD, WARJJOUR-STRii^T. 



h 



4i00 



N 



»*> 



s^ 






'^i 






xSN' 






,, """"vKi^"' 



I 






'^^/. * K ^ v^^ . 



%A^' *<^^ 






.0^^ 



'°^"€^w 










^o rO^ ^''" "^. '^^ 








^^^•".A =\/«^\k)^J° v"^"^ ^ ' Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
rj- \ ^'^ ^ ^s^' '" ' Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 

■\ O^ /«..^ ,u ^ Treatment Date: August 2006 

"- PreservationTechnologies 

I' ^ A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATIOK 

1 1 1 T^lomso:^ Park Dnue 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 







.0' c 



OO^ 



'7\ 



^\s^^,;%^-- .N^' 



O^x 



\' ^ 






%,^^^' .*^;^H'^; *^^- ;,^N,: '">•< 



.^. .^^-^ 






..c^ 



^,"'"V>^ .A 






■^ o 









oo 












<^ 'o 






^''""^ " .:C^^'^. r '^- -.. N . .S 






A^" '^r 



^^^''^ .^^^:%''-^ ^ 






-0^ 









^•^ -'*, 









u 



O. ..0^ .^^"^^.% .^ 



^ ^ \^ 



^N.^ . ■' ^ ' ; * ^ 'q^ 




\> ^ ^ '' " A 



'c^. 






v^^ * ' • " 



i.^- 









-^ -^ ^ :/^ 



.0 0. 






'-^^ V 



-0- 






'^ s 



■>* 






. ^ cP\' -^<. 



*. <V^ 



"<>. v^' 



f ^^ -^^ '^;^^^^^ ':^ ■ 






. , ^=^ .-O- 










o 



>*-^ -'" 



'^■j. ^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




'-'5J ."":v//. ' 



Li it^ii^ij r: 






; \ 












i*.. r- .• 









